Sleepless
by hachi hashi
Summary: They were crazy dreams. But dreams are still just dreams right? OC Self-Insert.
1. Prolog

AN: I don't own Naruto, but it would be cool if I did.

* * *

_CLANG!_

My eyes slowly cracked opened, a blurry vision of the off white ceiling coming into view. I began to sit up in; searching for whatever had startled me awake. Had I accidentally kicked something off my bed again in my sleep? I was going to really break something if this kept up…

To my surprise though, a woman was standing next to my footboard. She seemed to be bending over to pick something up. But why the heck was she in my room?!

I quickly scanned the area around me. Nope, this definitely _wasn't_ my room. I was lying in a cold metal bed in a room reminded me of… a hospital? An underfunded one at that. It all seemed pretty worn out from overuse.

But why was I here in the first place? My heart began to pound. Was I in some sort of accident? Did loose a limb or two? I checked quickly. Nothing missing. I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

The only way to know was to ask. Luckily a person was right in front of me too.

The woman was still bent drown, muttering something under her breath that sounded like a curse.

I wasn't sure exactly what to say.

"Um, excuse me…"

The woman quickly jerked up, eyes wide in shock and mouth gaping open. I guessed she was a nurse by looking at her outfit. She was holding a metal tray with squashed food piled on top. That must have been the sound I heard. It was instantly though dropped onto the floor once again. She just continued staring at me, her expression frozen on her face.

Oh crap, my face is seriously disfigured isn't it?

The next thing she did though was run out of the room yelling at the top of her lungs.

"**Sensei! Sensei!"**

What the, why is she calling for a teacher? I paused. Now that I thought about it, sensei also meant doctor…

But that doesn't explain why she was talking in Japanese!

This weird scenario could only be one of two things.

Either this was just a dream, or I had been kidnapped and brought to Japan, saved by a mysterious person after being seriously injured, then brought to a run down, out of the way hospital in order to treat my injuries.

…

For now I'm just going to go with the first one.

Just as quickly as the nurse had left, she returned, a frantic doctor in tow. He wore scrubs and a lab coat, his long purple hair tied in a low pony tail. Naturally purple hair? The dream theory seems pretty much confirmed now.

He quickly rushed over to me with a completely shocked and bewildered expression on his face. He anxiously spouted off something to me. I could only pick up a stray word here and there.

I sighed in realization. This why you don't cram the night before a test. You get screwed up dreams that include whatever subject you were studying. I had only been learning Japanese for a couple of months so far. The least my dreams could do would be dumbing it down for me.

It seemed that not responding to what the doctor was saying only caused him to freak out more. He grabbed my shoulders, staring straight into my eyes.

Alright this was getting annoying. My sleep wouldn't be restful at all if this kept up. I scanned my limited vocabulary for a response. I had no idea how to say "Get your hands off of me", so I settled for one of the few phrased I knew.

"Urusai!"

The not so formal way to ask for silence.

He looked shocked at this, but also a little relived. He slowly let go of my shoulders, cautiously backing up. He walked over to the nurse who then started conversing with him for a while. He face relaxed a bit, but he kept looking at me out of the corner his eyes every couple of seconds.

Well anyway, now that all of that was taken care of, I wanted to get out of this dream already. My bed seemed comfortable enough, and my pillow seemed like it was filled with more than the bare minimum of stuffing. I laid back one again closing my eyes trying to fall asleep. I had been able to sleep within one of my dreams before. It would probably work again.

However, it seemed like my dream wouldn't let me. I was lightly shaken awake up by the doctor and the nurse almost as quickly as I had able to close my eyes. I moaned, rolling over.

"Just go away…"

They wouldn't. Instead they started checking the machines around me, which I only just realized I was hooked up to. I was surprisingly out of it. I guess it being a dream it would make sense.

Not much hope left now for peace and quiet, I decided I might as well go look around. I pulled the wires off of my body, whatever it was in my nose, and the IV out of my arm. Probably not the smartest decision of my life, seeing as it actually hurt like crazy. I quickly jumped out of bed and headed out the door.

I hadn't noticed how my limp body felt until I started heading down the empty hallway. It felt like jello, not wanting to obey my commands to run.

To their credit the doctor and nurse quickly figured I had left and were soon in pursuit. I was moving surprisingly fast though, soon heading into an adjoining hallway.

This one was jam packed. Its boring entirety was all off white, though the green floor gave it a bit more differentiation. People were moving all throughout, nurses walking between rooms. Visitors were there also, though some of them had strange clothing choices. The hair was especially weird though. I was like an oddly muted rainbow with so many unnatural shades and hues.

To my fortunate surprise, most seemed too busy to notice me walking through. I continued on through the hallway and soon came to a nice large window on my left. I decided to peer outside to look and see what I could see. I was anticipating all of the exciting concrete structures that would be in view; maybe even a nice highway would be there to look at.

Instead I saw buildings. Lots and lots of buildings, though these buildings weren't like I expected. They were made out of wood and some painted vibrant shades. It was actually different architecture style altogether. Different shapes and sizes all jammed together. It was something you would never see in the real world. Heck, there weren't even cars.

There was something about it though, something familiar. It was on the tip of my tongue-

A hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. The doctor must have caught up with me already… I braced myself for whatever could happen next.

As I was turned around I found myself face to face with a different person all together.

She was a bit on the short side, had blond hair, and a diamond tattooed on her forehead. Odd choice to get a tattoo there of all places… Her reaction to seeing me was similar to the nurse, but a bit more reserved. After a few seconds passed she gave me a sad smile.

"Mako-san."

Who?

"Gomenasai."

Her smile remained, but I suddenly caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.

My vision suddenly faded to black.

* * *

AN: I'm actually just learning Japanese this year myself. Writing this stuff out in romaji feels kind of strange to me. I'm sure I probably messed up somewhere with what words to use in what situation.

It's been a while since I have done anything Naruto, yet I decided to write a fanfiction. I'm sure I got details about the Naruto-verse wrong at somewhere, so feel free to point them out if you catch anything.


	2. Chapter 1

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

My eyes shot open as I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible.

This time though I found my feet on soft carpet. I looked around, soon sighing with relief.

I was back home in my own room. Well, I guess I never actually left it first place. I rubbed my tired eyes and then went to go turn my alarm clock. It sat on the nightstand next to my bed.

My room had a cozy feel I was quite proud of. Most of my furniture was made out of a warm colored wood, and with my bed, beside table, dresser, and desk all in the room it was a bit cramped. Cozy but cramped.

I finally bothered to brush my brown hair out of my face before heading down stairs to the kitchen. It was recently remodeled and was quite the nice place to cook, or if you were like me fail at cooking but be in denial and pretend you were good at it anyway.

As I did every day I went to the cupboard and grabbed out a box of cereal. I got my bowl and spoon together too before sitting down at the table. My dad was already sitting down, customarily reading the news paper while also eating cereal. I guess you could say that this was our routine.

"Good Morning, how did you sleep?"

I munched on my cereal and swallowed.

"Good. I had this really weird dream though."

My dad sighed.

"I never seem to dream much anymore. Either that or I just can't remember them."

He still sighed.

"Your mom though has the craziest dreams she likes tell me about."

He was quiet for a moment before suddenly perking up.

"Anyway, you said you had a test to take today right? What's it on?"

I was in the middle of eating another mouthful cereal.

"Jhapenhese."

He seemed pretty eager to correctly me about my habit of talking with my mouth full, but this time let it slide.

"I hope you do well. I'll be thinking about you."

I swallowed

"Thanks. I ended up staying up late to study so I should be fine."

I eyed the clock in the corner of the kitchen; the time seemed to be rapidly ticking by.

I shoved in my last mouthful of cereal before putting my stuff away.

"I gotta get ready to go. Bye Dad!"

He waved to me as I headed up stairs, this time heading to my older sisters room. With her being well into college and her only showing up at home for Christmas, I had converted her room into my own walk in closet.

That might be a stretch to say though since there wasn't much room in the first place. It's not because it's small on anything. It's actually bigger than mine. The thing is that it's jammed packed with stuff.

My sister is one of those crazy obsessed anime people. The moment she got a job she set out to buy as much merchandise as possible. That means her walls are covered with posters, plushies cover her entire bed, random figurines and DVDs also are all around the room. The most notable feature though is what I like to call 'The Wall'. An entire wall of her room is lined with book shelves, floor to ceiling. And what's it filled with? Manga. It has practically any series you could think of, and whenever she comes home she only adds to it. I don't even want to know how much money she spent on all of that.

My sister had tried her hardest to convert me into a fan. She kept trying to get me to read her favorites, but honestly I could never get into any of it. I'm not a fan of crappy romance and I don't have much taste for the really dark stuff either. Other things she showed me just seemed really dumb.

I shuffled through the room until I came to the dressers, allowing me to change into my clothes for the day. Her room has its own bathroom which I took full advantage of. Before we remodeled, this room used to be the master bedroom. Being older my sister got this room, and I was tempted to switch now that she was at college. What stopped me though was the thought of attempting to move 'The Wall'. I shivered at the idea alone.

After finishing getting ready for the day I headed outside to my bus stop. Only after a few minutes of waiting it arrived and I was off to school.

My high school isn't particularly unique in any way. A grey box is what it is. I guess one of my pet peeves is architecture. As an aspiring architect I always want to _fix_ it, whatever that means. I guess I just feel like I could do better than a rectangle.

I headed to my first hour class English Lit., to find one of my friends already there frantically completing a homework assignment. She had dyed red hair and a soft face that made her look younger than she actually was.

I waved over to her as I headed to my desk a few rows behind her.

"Hey Rachel! How was your weekend?"

She barely looked up.

"Just give me two seconds, I'm almost done!"

I sat down in my chair and began to set out my stuff for the class. I also had my Japanese notes with me. It couldn't hurt to study a bit more-

"**Yes, I'm done!"**

She stood up; double fist pumping into the air.

"Take that Calculus!"

I had to smile. She always had the best reactions.

She turned to me with a smile still on her face, getting out of her desk and walking up to mine.

"Hey, Kay!"

Her smile widened.

"Oh, the rhyming, always so much fun. This is why I love your nickname."

She sat on top of the desk next to mine, stretching her legs out.

"What was it you wanted ask me?"

I sighed, a smile still on my face.

"I was just wondering how your weekend was."

She started to moan.

"Really boring. I didn't really do anything besides sit around and do homework."

I raised an eyebrow.

"W-well… I had allot, so much I had to finish it this morning."

I rolled my eyes. "Right. I completely believe you."

"Hey! I deserve to spend my weekends having fun. I get it all done eventually."

"True enough. But I just don't know why you always save your math homework for last. It's always the most interesting part."

She looked completely baffled.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. You're completely crazy."

"But-! "

She just shook her head.

"Math people."

_R-RING_

The first warning bell for the start of the day went off. People started to trickle into the classroom and Rachel wandered back to her seat. I started flipping through my notes to hopefully cram a bit more vocab into my brain.

…

We parted our ways after or first hour class and I drifted through second and third. Afterwards though, it was finally my favorite time of the day, Lunch.

The school lunchroom is like the school itself; bland and uninteresting. It's a pretty wide open space with long rectangular tables stretching end to end. One side of the wall had a couple of windows near the top, but it basically feels like a bunker.

I walked to my usual place, a corner we had claimed for ourselves. A person waved over for me to come and sit down.

My friends look like perfectly sane, normal people on the outside, but when you get us all together it's quite the experience.

I sat down in one of the stools at a table with a couple people already sitting down. Rachel was sitting across from me, my other friend Ada was next to her.

Ada was a relatively quiet person with short black hair that was usually swept back behind her ears. She tended to spend allot of her time on her phone. I once asked her what she was always doing, and she had responded to me with her eyes glittering, "Fanfiction."

Our little corner of the lunch room had two large tables pushed into an 'L' shape together with enough room to sit about twenty people. We usually filled it up pretty well. People tended to come and go, table hopping as they pleased.

Several more people came sat down. Some of them I didn't know very well, but they were still friends either way.

I felt a hand tap me on my shoulder.

"Boo."

Rachel tossed a napkin over my head.

"Go away ghost!"

You could barely hear the sound of the napkin making impact.

"Hey! I wasn't trying to scare _you_!"

I turned around. As I expected it was my other good friend Eli. He was smirking slightly as he brushed the napkin off of his shirt. He had short dirty blond hair with bangs that touched right above his hazel eyes.

As long as I can remember the two of us have known each other. We met in elementary school and had become fast friends. I guess you could even say he was my best friend. He was the kind of person who was always up for the next exciting thing, and could be really mischievous if he wanted to be. Sometimes though I wished I could be a bit more like him, and other times I thanked the Lord I wasn't.

Eli scooted into the seat next to me, pulling out his lunch and started to eat. The four of us ended up talking for a while as more and people trickled in.

Soon most of the seats were filled. This is when our usual lunch hour really started. To my right sat the people who loved to sit and around debate politics. I don't think they were even capable of talking about anything else with one another. On my left sat the people who constantly talked about the most random stuff. It varied from several people randomly breaking into song, fandom discussions, video games, and just about any random topic that came to mind.

Seemingly on cue one of the guys sitting on my left side named Jacob took out his guitar and started strumming it. You couldn't hear is very well though over a very heated discussion of the show Sherlock that had just started.

I turned to them, slightly annoyed.

"You know guys; it doesn't really matter since you're going to have to wait two years for a new episode anyway."

One of them pouted with a less than serious expression.

"Kay, you're such a dream crusher!"

I shrugged.

"I prefer the term 'realist'."

She laughed.

"Well whatever. This is what we have fanfiction for!"

The rest of them gleefully agreed.

What's with this obsession over fanfiction anyway?

...

Lunch ended pretty uneventfully and I went and sat through my fourth and fifth hour classes. My last hour class was Japanese 1, which I hoped my cramming would pay off in.

The class room was pretty plain, but there were several posters on the wall like a map of Japan and a poster including some sort of stylized animal. I wandered over to my seat taking a good last look at my notes. The rest of my classmates were doing the same thing, some though were discussing the shows they were watching.

"Are you sure Natsu is a girl's name?"

"Pretty sure."

"Well I guess he does have pink hair…"

Another person chimed in.

"I think it could either a guy's or a girl's."

A person shouted across the room.

"I totally ship Natsu and Lucy!"

After being in this class so far this year I got the distinct feeling that I was about the only one who took it not based off of an interest of anime and manga. I chose because I was sick and tired of French and wanted to try something new.

Someone else also called over.

"No way! It's Natsu and Gray!"

_R-RING!_

The class bell rang and the tests were swiftly handed out and people headed back to their seats. As I flipped through the pages I let out a sigh of relief. It was actually pretty easy looking. I guess I did all of that studying for nothing…

…

The school day ended and I headed towards my bus, trying not the get run down in the busy hallway.

Now that the day was over I finally had some time to think.

That dream I had… It still left me feeling uneasy. There was something some familiar I saw in it, but I just couldn't remember what it was from.

I decided to just shrug it off. It was only one strange dream. It probably meant nothing anyway.

At least I hoped so.

* * *

AN: My first chapter completed! I think I have a whole new appreciation for writers now.


	3. Chapter 2

I found myself opening my eyes once again. This time though when I looked out there seemed to be trees overhead. The night sky was leaking through the large branches.

I sighed. Unless I've developed a problem with sleep walking, I'm dreaming again.

The past few days my dreams had been pretty normal. Nothing in particular was out of the ordinary. This dream however felt different. It was the same type of feeling as the one about the hospital. I wasn't exactly sure how to describe it, but one way to put it was everything seemed more vibrant and realistic.

I did a bit of research on dreams and sleep, and the conclusion I came to was that I was probably actually lucid dreaming. That made me jump for joy. I could control my dreams and do basically whatever I wanted in them then!

I sat up, or at least I tried to. My whole body was stuck. I tried to wriggle out of whatever it was, only to find out that I was in some sort of sleeping bag type thing. The only thing exposed was my head.

I felt around on the inside of it soon finding a zipper. I strategically bended my arms to unzip it and got myself free. I started to sit up a bit uncomfortably.

Alrighty then, time to go on an adventure-

Crap.

Several people were sleeping all around me. In fact, I was in the dead center of their sleeping circle. The campsite had the remnants of a burnt out fire and besides the four full sleeping spots there was one empty. In the dark I couldn't really make out the people around me, but I could see the form of someone leaning again a tree a little ways away.

Well, this is was no problem. If I was really lucid dreaming I should be able to get away easily. I slipped completely out of the sleeping bag, careful not to make any noise.

Ok, dream, let's go flying!

I jumped in the air.

And… nothing happened.

I was a little annoyed.

Maybe lucid dreaming didn't work how I thought it did after all. It seemed to be kind of lame. My spontaneous jumping though didn't go without notice. The figure by the tree started moving closer.

I wondered what I should do. Should I run, or should I stay? I was planning to go off and test my lucid dreaming capabilities, but that seemed like it would be a no go. Well then, might as well stick around and see what was going on.

The person was moving ridiculously slow. I thought I should speed up a bit.

I waved to them shouting.

"Hey random person over there! Can your hurry it up please?"

This actually caused them to freeze in place instead.

"…"

"Anata wa dare desu ka?"

More Japanese? I had hoped that it would a onetime thing.

I wondered what to respond. I knew 'Anata' meant you, and 'dare' meant who, so they were asking me who I was.

What should I say though? Should tell them my real name, or just make something up instead? I thought it over for a moment.

"Watashi wa Mako desu."

I vaguely remembered being called that from my last strange dream. This seemed to somehow be the correct answer because they continued walking again, and the rest of the people who I thought were sleeping all got up from their places. I wondered why they were pretending to be sleeping. Did they think I was some sort of threat?

I finally got a good look at the people around me. They all seemed to be in their late twenties or early thirties. There were three men and two women in the group. There was one guy with grey hair and a mask, another with brown hair and sunglasses, a third who had spiky blue hair. These three all were wearing a similar outfit with green vests and some sort of forehead protector. Both of the women were dressed similarly and one had had long purple hair. The person other had short black hair.

Some of them looked more shocked than others to see me, but in general they kept a cool demeanor.

I felt a bit entitled to know their names since they apparently already knew mine. I ended up tossing back their question to them.

"Anata wa dare desu ka?"

The guy with blue hair seemed to shift back and forth uncomfortably. They were all silent for a moment before the mask guy answered me.

Most of what he said I couldn't understand.

I just kind of stared blankly at him. I had to at least let these people know I didn't know the language very well.

"Sukoshi nihongo o hanashimasu."

I wasn't sure if I got the grammar correct, but it seemed that they got the gist of what I was trying to say. They didn't seem very happy about it either.

The mask guy paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Konohagakure."

Who?

"Dare?"

This question seemed to give most of the people standing there a heart attack. The blue haired guy literally fell over.

I kind of just stood there hoping for some kind of elaboration, but none came. Once the blue haired guy finally got off of the ground he turned to the person with purple hair and started what sounded like complaining. He kept pointing at me while she sternly spoke to him. The others just stood around kind of awkwardly.

Well, as riveting as the dream conversation had been, I was ready to walk away. The trees could possibly be interesting if I looked close enough.

I walked a few paces toward a small clearing, waving over my shoulder.

"Sayonara."

I didn't get too far though before the sunglasses guy flashed in front of me. Yup flashed. He just somehow appeared. Dream logic.

I tried to move to the left and right of him, but the guy kept moving to block me. This was getting frustratingly annoying.

I then decided to break a run for it. My plan was to use a burst of energy to break through, and then use a zigzag formation the rest of the way.

Well, I at least tried. The moment I stepped forward my vision started to fade to black once again.

Can people in my dreams please stop knocking me unconscious?

* * *

AN: This was kind of a meh chapter for me. I had another idea for how it was going to go, but I ended of scrapping it and starting over. This way I'll hopefully get the plot rolling a bit faster.

And in case anyone was curious, here is what 'Sukoshi nihongo o hanashimasu' means.

Sukoshi: A little

Nihongo: Japanese Language

Hanashimasu: To Speak

O: A marker used in a sentence


	4. Chapter 3

After a long day of being educated, and with a quick bus ride later, I arrived back home.

I live in an ordinary looking two story home. It's located in one of those housing communities that no one actually knows about, that is until they see the sign for it poking out from behind over grown bushes. There were no perks for living in our neighborhood either. Like allot of homes mine is a plain beige built in a ranch style. I think at one time this was a cookie-cutter neighbor hood, but over time additions were made and people realized how much they liked color.

I headed up the driveway and stepped onto our little porch we had at the front of the house. There wasn't much room for anything besides a dying plant and an old chair in the little space, but not much time was spent sitting here anyway.

After pulling out my key from my backpack and unlocking the door, I dumped off my bag by the stairwell and headed upstairs to my room.

I sat down in my lovely swivel desk chair and started to boot up my laptop. There was something I had been wanting to look up. A few minutes later I found myself entering my go to website to find any and all information. Good old Google. I couldn't imagine my life without it.

I entered the one word that had been swimming around in my head all day, 'konogakuru'.

A ridiculous amount of results popped up and I ended up clicking on the first one that caught my eye. It was for a website called Narutopedia. The first page gave me all the information I wanted to know. It seemed that Konogakuru was another word for 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves'. This I actually recognized. I stared skimming the description and realized that this was from an anime I had seen a handful of episodes of a while back. It was centered around a boy named Naruto who lived in a ninja village. I had watched the English version with my sister, and during the whole time I couldn't get over how people kept mispronouncing his name. Every time I heard 'Narudo' I couldn't help but cringe.

The show fell for me under the 'stupid' category. The plot in a show about ninjas was just really about a dumb love triangle with twelve year old kids. No thanks, I'll pass on that. After the episode where they got their first big mission I mentally checked out, not caring enough to keep watching.

I guess I must have secretly really liked it though for it to keep invading my dreams like this. The people I saw must have been ninja from the story then.

I was curious so I searched the website for the different characters. It seemed there were different ninja ranks that ranged from Genin to Jounin, or ANBU I guess if you wanted to get technical. The leader of the village was called the Hokage, and the most powerful of them all.

I was able to find profile of the masked guy. His name was Kakashi Hatake and he was apparently the Sensei of the main character. He started to look more familiar the longer I stared at his picture. It seemed he was a pretty high ranking ninja, Jounin level and former ANBU.

Out of curiosity I started searching for the other people in my dreams. The blond woman was named Tsunade and she was eventually going to become Hokage in the story. Another crazy strong person.

Some on the other ninja included a medical ninja named Shizune who was Tsunade's right hand woman, and an ANBU named Yugo. The others I couldn't seem to find.

I decided to search for one last thing. I typed in the name 'Mako' into the search bar of the website, nervous about the results.

There were none. I wasn't sure whether to be happy about that or not.

…

Admittedly after reading through the wiki page my interest was piqued. It seemed it was about more than romance after all. Because of that I went next door to my sister's room. I grabbed the first couple Naruto volumes off of the shelf and plopped myself down on her bed to read.

Once I got a couple volumes in I found myself interested. The land of Waves ark was so-so, but the chakra system seemed kinda cool. The characters besides Kakashi made me want to punch then in the face. Sakura seemed useless so far in the story, Sasuke had some emo phase going on, and Naruto was the type of character that you should never feed candy.

I looked up a justu hand sign chart and started attempting to do them myself. Soon I learned that fingers are really not meant to bend in certain directions.

Continuing on, the Chunin exams were what really got me hooked. A Ton of new characters were thrown in my face with subplots galore. The international politics part was especially interesting to me. It made me really wonder what the other ninja villages in ninjaland were like. Even though Gaara was clearly psychotic, and Temari and Kankuro weren't exactly rainbows and sunshine, The Hidden Sand Village seemed like the place I would want to live in the Naruto world. True it might be unstable and have tons of political upheaval, but that's not what really mattered.

I would go there for the weather. It would always be warm; well at least during the day, and I would never have to deal with snow again. A dream come true!

…

At lunch the next day I sat among my friends eating like normal. Everyone was being their usual selves and messing around.

I took another bite of my sandwich.

"So guys, I have something to admit."

Rachel, Ada, and Eli all looked at me with slightly apprehensive yet curious expressions.

"So, what is it?"

"Yeah tell us!"

"You robbed a bank?"

"No, Kay would never do that."

"I agree with Ada. Kay's more of the undercover type. Maybe she's secretly an assassin."

"You two clearly don't know her as well as I do. When she wants to she can act completely impulsively, like robbing a bank for example!"

"I don't believe you. Our little schemer rob a bank? Maybe so, but I'm sure it's for a reason, like undercover assassin work!

"Uh, guys-"

"Why don't you two just compromise and say she is secretly from another planet?"

"That's a whole different thing."

"Not even close."

"Guys! I'm none of those things."

I pretended taking offense from being insulted.

"In actuality I'm secretly an Academy Award winning actress who went undercover at a high school to find herself after succumbing to a crippling drug addiction. Get it right!"

We took a moment to laugh at ourselves. There never seemed to be a serious moment between the four of us. I regained my composure before speaking once again.

"What I was going to say that I actually started reading a manga."

Ada's eyes grew huge.

"Tell me tell me tell me! What series is it?"

"It's called Naruto."

A giant smile appeared on her face.

"Hey, does anyone have a pen on them?"

Someone away down the table called over.

"Here you go, catch!"

The pen was tossed though the air, hitting Rachel smack dab in the face.

"Ow…"

"Sorry! Are you ok?"

"I think I have massive internal bleeding."

"…"

Ada quickly reached over for the pen after it ricocheted and rolled onto the table. She pointed towards me.

"Hand."

"Uh, ok…?"

I gingerly stretched my hand towards her but it was quickly grabbed it and jerked it closer. Ada took no time uncapping the pen and furiously scribbling something on my skin. I pulled my hand back once she was done and started to read what she wrote.

"The Akatsuki's Kawaii Kawaii Summer Beach Party…?"

"Go look it up and read it! It's one of the greatest things ever!"

"But who are the Akastuki exactly? I don't think I've gotten that far yet. I've only read up to the Chunin exams."

"It doesn't matter! Just go read it!"

"Alright…"

That sparkle in her eye scared me a little bit. I didn't know much about fanfiction, but it was probably true enough to the characters.

* * *

AN: Kay is finally learning about the world of Naruto! I should really go back and reread it all myself for a refresher...


	5. Chapter 4

_TAK_

It was a strange sound I kept hearing with a small time of silence between each repetition. I cracked my eyes to see that this time I was moving at blinding speeds.

Good God. How many times has it been now?! And why do I have to keep opening my eyes when I'm already asleep?!

Unless I was sleep walking within my own dream, someone or some_thing_ was taking me along for a ride. Opening my eyes a little further I saw that I was being carried princess style in someone's arms.

I'm being kidnapped aren't I? Quickly I shut my eyes to try and avoid be noticed.

My first reaction to this situation of course, was to hone in on my two months of kung fu classes and punch my captor in the face.

I quickly turned to the person, sending my fist flying into the nose of some guy with blue hair.

…And a Konoha headband.

Whoops.

My punch actually hit its mark, but I'm sure it was only because I had the element of surprise on my side. When he saw it coming he flashed a look of shock, and then it rapidly changed pain as soon as it collided, causing his nose make a loud crunching sound.

I was really impressed with myself! I actually had the strength to break someone's nose! Hazah! But then again, I had just assaulted a probable ally. The least I could do would be apologizing.

"Sumimasen!"

He just glared at me, blood dripping down his face.

Should probably ask if he's ok too…

"Ogenki desu ka?"

His only reaction was just continuing to glare. Well, in the other dream I had he didn't seem to like me much either. Ignoring the blood, I finally got a closer look at him. His light blue hair was cut short and spiked it out in various directions, a headband tied loosely around his neck. His eyes were a similar blue color to his hair, but in a bit darker shade. He looked about in his early twenties; probably high ranking too like the rest of the notable group members.

Wait a second. Were the rest of the people even here? I twisted my head around, spotting the back of someone running a bit of the way in front of us.

Ok, good it's not just us. I mean, at least I'm pretty that it was a good thing.

My dream this time didn't change as drastically. It was still with same people, but the location was different.

Now that I thought about it, this didn't look like the ground…

The ninja had apparently stopped running after I mangled his face, and we were now stopped on what looked like… My eyes wandered downwards.

A giant tree branch?! We were ridiculously high up.

"**AH! Tree!"**

"I mean uh, **AH! Ki!"**

The blue haired guy's expression went from completely furious, to slightly smirking. He set me down from his arms, placing me lean against the trunk of the tree. Quickly he brought hand up to his face, a green aura surrounding it and rapidly mending the broken nose.

I just sat there in awe. This must be medical ninjutsu then. If only I could use it in the real world; then I could make mill- help lots of people.

At look a little while for his nose to heal all the way, but once he was done and the blood wiped off, he motioned for me to climb back into his arms.

If it wasn't for the fact that I was in a tree, with most likely no idea how to down; and that he was a Konoha ninja, I probably run off by now. Dream or not, I wasn't exactly going to trust random people, especially ones with a pretty good reason to hate me.

The guy continued to motion for me to come forward, but I wasn't going to go just yet.

"Iie."

The astounding no caused his eye to start twitching, an eerie smile spreading across his face.

Don't want to make him too angry…

He stared stepping towards me, planning on picking me up by force.

Wait!

"Matte Kudasai!"

He paused, starting to look even more pissed off.

First off, I wanted to know this guy's name. It's not like I could keep calling him 'the blue haired guy' forever.

"Anata no namae wa nan desu ka?"

He gritted his teeth together before slowly replying.

"Sanu Daichi."

Daichi huh? That wasn't a name I recognized. I pondered it for a moment before deciding what to ask next.

There was still another question I wanted answers to.

"Doko ni iteimasu ka?"

Where are we going?

There was a long silent pause. He was probably trying to figure out what to tell me that I could understand with my limited vocabulary.

He pointed towards himself.

"Boku wa anata no nakama desu."

Nakama meant comrade or friend if I wasn't mistaken. It wasn't very reassuring sounding though coming from a guy who was quickly losing patience.

He was a leaf ninja, and still hadn't murdered me for my insolence. Trustworthy enough I guess, though he did just dodge that last question

Deciding I was finally done with Q and A, Daichi this time turned away from me, crouching down near the ground. He motioned for me to grab on.

It looks like I'm getting a piggy back ride.

Once we were all situated and ready to go, Daichi jumped off the branch, and we were leaping through the forest once again. I made sure to hold on as tight as I possibly could, which meant accidentally strangling him a couple times.

It was truly exhilarating though; moving through the air so fast. The wind in my face, trees flashing by. Things like this are what make dreams so great. Here you could experience all of the cool things you would never get to do, or ever be capable of doing.

…

We had been traveling for some time, finally getting the person in front of us back in our sights. Hopping through like this was actually quite relaxing once you got used to it.

After a little while vision suddenly began to blur and I tried rubbing my eyes with one of my hands. It only seemed to make it worse though, my head now starting to throb.

Next I tried to rest my head on Daichi's shoulder, but the pain didn't subside.

I quickly jerked my head up instead, the forest now spinning before my eyes.

What was going on?

My limbs suddenly went slack, my grip becoming looser.

No! Not this feeling again!

My body was slowly tipping backwards, arms drooping down to my sides.

Why does it always end like this?

And just like that, I passed out once again.

* * *

AN: Well, that was my first ever attempt at writing someone passing out. It needs a bit of work.

In case anyone is wondering, Kay won't keep falling unconscious for much longer.


	6. Chapter 5

Mmm. Five more minutes please…

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to ignore the light shining down onto my face. Rolling over on my side I gripped the covers tightly, hoping to avoid waking up for as long as possible.

After a long while I finally admitted defeat, whipping my sheets off, which in the process sent the Naruto volumes I had been reading late into night flying off through the air.

Ugh. I'm so tired. Why did I do that to myself?

In Shippuden things started to get really interesting; and for some reason I just couldn't stop reading.

I wondered what time it was anyway. My alarm hadn't gone off yet, so it must be up pretty early.

I shifted my body to get a look at the clock's screen.

11:30?!

I placed my face in my hands and started to moan. I had overslept and in the process missed my bus. It was too far to walk there, and on top of that my parents weren't going to be too happy with me.

I sighed. Not much I could do about it now I suppose.

My stomach started the grumble and I began to feel some hunger pangs. I guess I had missed breakfast and now nearly lunch.

I descended down the stairs, heading over to the kitchen.

I wonded what there is to eat at the moment. I guess worse case scenario I could snack on some cereal.

I turned the corner, and to my surprise there was someone sitting at the kitchen table typing away on a laptop.

"Mom?"

She looked up from the screen smiling brightly towards me.

"Ah, good sweetie. I'm glad you're finally up. I was starting to get worried!"

She waved for me to come over. I headed to her, taking the chair directly across from where she was sitting.

My mom is a kind but stern person; which I guess you would have to be to work in the business world like she does. Her dirty blond hair was tied up in a lose bun, and had make up perfect as usual to suit her dark blue eyes; which I happily inherited myself. She was dressed in her work attire, tat was always magnificently color coordinated.

I started to rub my eyes.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

She sighed.

"Oh believe me, I tried. You must have been dead tired. Nothing I did would work."

"Oh, really? I guess I was."

She stared at me knowingly, her expression turning more serious.

"No staying up late anymore alright? I look the day off to make sure you were ok, but this can't keep happening. I have a job to go to and I can't keep babysitting you when you're already in high school."

I gulped.

"Yes Ma'am. "

"I don't want you to turn into your sister by getting carried away with this new hobby of yours. Hopefully she's been laying off of it since she's been in school, but I'm not so sure."

Out of the two of my parents my Dad was definitely the more lenient one. My Mom was always advocating for us to use our time more wisely. It was always to her definition of wisely though.

"Ok Mom, I got it."

"Good. Now, you should go grab yourself something eat. There are a couple of things in the fridge."

I nodded, getting up to take something.

"I think I'm going to eat in my room."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Of course! I'm just going to nap a bit more."

I really needed to know what would happen next. Would Gaara live or die? This was a very pressing issue.

…

Ok, good. It all worked out in the end. I really did have a soft spot for Granny Chiho though.

I took another bite if my sandwich.

This was getting really good. I never would have believed the characters could have changed so much. Gaara actually became sane! Naruto became bearable! Sakura did something!

I flipped to the next page, trying to stifle a yawn.

Maybe it was for the best I actually take a nap. I've practically got the day off now anyway. A few more hours of sleep couldn't hurt.

After setting the book down on my side table, I crawled back into bed, pulling up my covers. My eyelids started to droop and I slowly drifted off to blissful sleep.

* * *

AN: Not really happened in this one. It was mostly filler in a way.

Next chapter the plot really begins! I'm excited to write it.


	7. Chapter 6

This really had been a nice nap, but it was about time for me to get up already. I hadn't even finished eating my food yet. Plus I had to actually get around to figuring out what I missed at school.

I sat up, or least tried to. Apparently I was already sitting in a chair. Tied to it in fact.

Oh crap.

Clearly this was a dream, unless I for no apparent reason was taken out of my home with witnesses around.

The room I was being kept in was a pretty large open space. Judging by the walls, it looked like it must have been carved out of a cave; a few sculpted pillars around the area. Sconces lit up the room to a dim glow, making it all the more eerie.

The biggest thing I noticed though were faint black markings all across the floor and walls. I glanced up at the ceiling. Even there too. Did the last person who was in here go slowly crazy, prompting them to draw all over everything?

I wasn't too eager to find out why that could possibly be.

My arms had been tied down to arm rests with a thick rope, my main body also held in place by rope to the back of the chair. However, no one had bothered to do anything about my legs.

Looks like I might be able to get out of here after all.

The chair itself was pretty normal. It was made out of some type of wood, pretty plain without any ornate detailing.I tried to skid it across the floor by pushing with my legs, and it luckily moved.

So in conclusion, I had my legs free and the chair wasn't bolted down. I tried to pull against the ropes just for good measure.

Yeah… I wasn't going to get out of them with brute strength anytime soon.

Maybe if I tried ramming the chair against the wall it would break. It could possibly work, or horribly fail. I would probably give myself some more head trauma. My dreams had enough of that already.

Then again, hasn't this scenario been played out in about a bajillion movies before? One way was always to get up on your feet while still being tied up to the chair. That way you could rush your enemy and crash into them, breaking whatever you were attached to in the process. At least that's how I recall James Bond doing it. Or maybe it was someone else. Pretty much every big action movie seemed to have a scene like this.

Either way, I might as well try it.

I leaned forward a bit, giving my feet a better grip on the floor. I continued lean until my legs were fully standing, my top half awkwardly hunched over.

OW ow ow ow ow

This was actually pretty painful! I would have never guessed that a chair would have been so heavy. I'm not the most athletic person out there, but I swore I was stronger than this.

I walked a few paces, pathetically struggling along the way. It seemed the door to get out of here I had my back to before. Cautiously I turned the knob, my hands barely reaching it.

The door was unlocked!

I slowly opened it, trying not to knock into it with the chair in the process. Outside of the room was a hallway that split in three different directions. I could either keep going straight or head to my left or right.

Might as well go straight then.

I continued on for a little while, until the hallway turned into a gigantic room, or more accurately a cavern.

It was freaking huge. The empty cavern had a vaulted ceiling look, areas finely sculpted for support and what can only describe as almost an ancient looking throne room, mixed with a Japanese flair. Though most of the area was level and smoothed down, there was an area that had a slightly elevated platform adorned with intricate pillows. Besides that however, there was no furniture in sight.

I was curious though, and though I had the weight of the chair on me, I somehow kept trudging along. Even though ramming the chair against something to break it seemed like a bad idea, it was starting to be a little tempting.

I started to look a bit more, trying to find the best place to try it out, until I hear a stern voice filling the room.

I froze.

Who said that?

Doing a full three sixty, I turned around to find the source. No one was near the place I headed here from, no one around that corner or that one either.

Dream logic?

I glanced around once again.

What the…?

Sitting on top of the pillows was an old woman wearing a simple purple kimono. She was quite short; her white hair and wrinkled skin showing her age. Harmless looking enough, but there was something different about her though; a certain feeling you don't get from your average elderly person.

She said something once again that I absolutely did understand a single word of. Was it Japanese like it usually was? I couldn't quite tell.

I just stood there as she stared me straight in the eyes.

Kind of creepy if you ask me.

Before I could muster a single syllable, two women appeared on either side of her. They looked very similar to one another, their black hair styled into two buns with short bangs, both wearing brightly colored kimonos.

The three remained in place, the old woman still talking away.

What was I supposed to do now? I guess I could go attempt to communicate with them, but what if they were the ones who kidnapped me? Shouldn't I be running away then?

There were still two unchecked hallways. There had to be an exit around here somewhere.

I turned around heading back.

Taking another step forward, something flashed into front of me, and before I knew it I had been tipped back into a sitting position.

What? Who?

A familiar grey haired, mask wearing ninja just stood there with an orange book in hair. He raised an eyebrow in what I could guess was a questioning look.

"Mako-san."

I couldn't help but groan. All of these Naruto based dreams tended to end the same way.

Kakashi gripped the back my chair, telling me something with what I could only assume was a smile under his mask.

I started to brace myself. Well, here it comes…

To my complete and utter shock, instead of being immediately knocked unconscious, I was instead dragged back down the hallway towards the room I had been held in.

I probably should have been kicking and screaming, or fighting back in some way; but instead I was just so dumbfounded by the situation that I went along without a word of protest.

…

Well, isn't this cozy. The entire gang is back together.

I was sitting in the center of the room legs now tied, joined by the Konoha ninja and the old woman with her assistants.

They talked back and forth for bit, though it was mostly Shizune and Kakashi who seemed to asking questions while the assistants replied. I could pick up a couple of words here and there, but nothing I could try and piece together.

The worst part of all though was the old woman's constant and uncomfortable stare.

Eventually she stopped though, turning to her assistants who in turn took out some sort of scrolls. They were set on the ground and unrolled to form an 'x' in which a brush and inks appeared with a cloud of smoke.

Summoning scrolls for ink? It must be pretty important then. That or it explains where they keep all of their furniture.

To my dismay, the assistants picked up the supplies and headed over to me with it. The old woman took the brush, dipped it in the ink and began writing some more of those marks on the floor. The more I looked at the marks, the quicker I realized that there were several rings of markings around where I was sitting.

The ink, the markings, being in circle…

No way, they couldn't be trying to seal something… could they?

But why would they need to seal something in the first place? At glanced at each of the ninjas. They kept neutral expression the entire time.

Ugh, I can't just sit here doing nothing! I need to at least try and talk to them.

The old lady had just finished writing on the floor, and now started writing some markings on my side. This also led me to realize the only thing I was wearing on my top half were some bandages wrapped around me.

Awkward.

I tried to struggle against the ropes, but the assistant's strong grip and cold eyes stopped me in place.

Wait!

"**Matte Kudasai!"**

I was completely ignored.

"**Look you crazy people, let me go! I don't know what you think you're trying to do, but stop it!"**

Even less of a reaction from that.

I probably should have kept a more level head in the situation, but for some reason I just couldn't think straight. My heart kept pounding against my chest, my palms growing sweaty.

Just a dream.

It's only a dream.

It's not real.

None of this is real.

I'll wake up soon and this will all be over.

It's Ok.

It's alright.

I kept thinking back to the scene where Kakashi sealed Sasuke's curse seal. He ended up in the hospital for quite some time afterwards.

The old woman stood back, probably to admire her handiwork.

If she was going to do something, she should do it already. This waiting is starting to kill me.

Before I could search my brain for the words to tell her so, a hand came slamming down on my side, sending some sort of energy through me, chakra most likely.

It burned like nothing I had ever felt before, filling my every pore with searing pain.

Was I screaming? I couldn't tell. All I could focus on was the burning.

I could feel myself slowly slipping into unconsciousness.

Good. Now I can finally wake up from this nightmare.

* * *

AN: Well, I guess you could say this is my first sort of serious chapter so far. Not sure if I quite pulled it off, but I tried spending extra time working on it.


	8. Chapter 7

"Time to get up already."

I must have been asleep for a while for my Dad to have come home already. He usually came home in time to eat dinner around six-thirty or so. Yes, naps are very nice things.

"I'll be down in a couple of minutes."

There was no reply, so I took it for a yes. I should try and get a couple more minutes if I could. My last dream wasn't restful at all.

I closed my eyes, about to nod off again.

A hand roughly shook my shoulder.

"Just give a couple more minutes Dad."

"… I'm not your Dad."

_What?_

I sprung up from my sleeping position to come face to face with the blue haired ninja Daichi. He looked back at me with great annoyance, while all I could do was stare back at him, my mouth dropping to the floor.

"H-how am I still asleep?"

"Well you aren't anymore."

That's not what I-

"Wait a second. How can you understand me?"

He just shrugged.

"The old lady used some type of seal. I'm no expert, so don't go around asking me for any more details."

Well, this Daichi guy was absolutely charming. Not that I gave him many reasons to like me in the first place.

"I really am sorry about punching your face back there. I thought you we kidnapping me. Well… I guess I was actually right about that after all."

This just caused him to face palm.

"Were not- That's not- Ah, just forget it. I'll leave to explanations up to everyone else."

He walked over to the door on the other side of the tiny room, which I noticed only contained the bed I was laying in and a chair.

"Can you stand? I was ordered to bring you to the main hall immediately after you woke up."

I got out of the bed and stood up on somewhat shaky feet. My side was still killing me, but it was nothing like before. Someone had even bothered to give me decent clothing. Kudos to them.

We silently and briskly walked through a long hallway for some time until taking a sharp turn into the cavern from before.

The old lady and assistants were in their usual places and the others were standing around the area doing various activities. Kakashi was reading his "book", Glasses guy was twirling around a kunai, Yuugo was sharpening her sword, and Shizune was looking through her bags.

They all looked up once we entered, Kakashi nodded towards Daichi, putting his book back inside his pack. The rest followed suit and soon we were all there as a group standing in front of the platform.

One of the assistants gave a deep bow before talking.

"I will translate for my teacher. She does not wish to lower herself to speaking in your tongue."

She bowed once again, the old woman beginning to speak.

"I am from a time before the great Sage of Six Paths, before he spread his ideals spread across the world; a time when there were many different ways of speech. I acquired an ability that granted me long life in order to pursue knowledge."

The Sage of Six Paths… was this someone important? I hadn't gotten far enough in the story to know.

"Once the substance called 'chakra' appeared I spent much of my time observing it, learning to bend it to my will."

Her eyes rested on me.

"That one you claim is from your village, yet doesn't solely speak your tongue. I cannot say I have heard what she speaks before in my lifetime."

I wanted to ask some questions, but the atmosphere seemed too heavy for whatever I had to say. The others were stone still, eyes completely glued on the woman. I felt her words must have carried a lot of weight.

"I used a technique I developed long ago to understand one another easily. It is something you would call a 'seal'."

It couldn't be the giant one on my side. That seemed like complete and utter overkill.

"This child should not be alive. Unless awake, her body contains no spiritual energy."

Spiritual energy… what exactly was that again? Did it have to do with chakra?

I guess this statement was shocking enough that it caused Shizune to cut in.

"But Ma'am, she has been in a constant comatose state for the most of her life!"

"I do not understand this myself, even with my great knowledge. However, I have been able to keep this energy inside of her now. It is a very powerful seal, not able to be broken by many."

Hold on. What exactly were they saying? A coma, possibly death?

"There should be no remaining problems."

This is still a dream right?

A little part of me wanted to accept that this could be real. Maybe I really was inside of the Naruto world. Maybe me waking up still in the dream should prove that fact.

But I wouldn't accept it.

I _couldn't _accept it.

Believing something like this could happen went against all logic in the universe. Irrational. Impossible. Unbelievable. Just because you wrote a story about something didn't make it come true.

"So what you're saying is that I'm stuck here now."

All eyes in the room turned to look at me.

"Your consciousness should remain in this body."

"And this is all real?"

"Yes."

"…"

"I don't believe you."

This caused her to look taken aback.

"You- don't believe me?"

"Nope."

Everyone went dead silent. I could feel their stares boring into me, probably questioning my sanity level. Maybe it was for the best I did some not completely lying elaboration.

"Look, up until now this has all been like a dream. Unless I see some concrete proof I refuse to believe a word of it."

It was probably for the best that I saved the fact I was from a different world for another day.

This seemed to cause everyone to relax a bit, the old woman regaining her composure.

"Then it would be best for you to become reacquainted with your home."

She looked towards Kakashi.

"I have done what was promised. Return and tell Tsunade that she has used up all remaining favors that I owe her."

…

Taking this as a cue to leave, we all exited the room and headed down one of the hallways until we arrived at a towering door carved out of solid stone.

After the glasses guy preformed some sort of jutsu, it slowly creaked open to reveal a lush forest, trees towering over everything. It turned out that we in fact, were inside of a mountain this entire time.

The ninja set out to leave again, and I received another piggy back ride.

Daichi spoke to me again.

"It'll take us a couple weeks to get back to the village. There are some crazy animals here, so don't make any noise."

I nodded. Maybe I could trust these guys enough to go with them. And hey! They still hadn't given me a chance to ask a single question!

We set off, leaping through the tree branches.

There was one thing though that kept gnawing at me from the back of my mind.

If this was real,

Then would that make Masashi Kishimoto God?

* * *

AN: I'm not sure how well I did with the pacing here. My first version of this I kind of just threw all of the information in your face. This time I tried to make it a bit more dramatic.

Side Note: I think I may have just created a ridiculously OP character...


	9. Chapter 8

For a long time I had been wondering why it was necessary to be surrounded by such high ranking ninja. I mean sure, the person we visited was probably pretty important, but several Jonin and an Anbu? Couldn't they just use Chunin, or heck even a team with Genin, since that's what the leaf seemed to send out for anything of relative importance.

Once we started heading away was when I finally realized why.

To image what to the monsters in the forest were like, take everything you can remember from the Chunin exams, pump it full of steroids, and then grow it a hundred times in size.

So in conclusion, I was basically dead without them.

It took us a long time just to get out of the forest; which meant little time spent sleeping and definitely none talking. They used their ninja sign language to communicate, and I picked up the meaning of a signal here and there.

I thought it was the most ridiculous thing to be so quiet, but being a little too loud setting up camp one day caused _something_ to come rampaging after us.

Oh the horror…

When we finally exited the area with most dangers out of sight, I finally got the chance to get some answers to some very pertinent questions, such as:

"Why did you guys knock me unconscious?"

It was the sunglasses guy who answered, retaining his completely blank expression.

"Flight risk."

Flight risk? That's totally ridiculous! I've never tried to-

He might have a point.

"Then why did you tie me up?"

"Flight risk."

…

We continued on for a while through the countryside. I never really thought about it before, but the Naruto world is actually kind of pretty. There's just something really cool about seeing rice patties lining the fields in a world without cars at every location.

We ended up stopping at small village along the way to eat, finally giving us all a chance to take a small break. There really is only so long you can stand being given a piggy back ride for. We decided to head out towards a small little restaurant within the city to eat at.

We walked around through the market for a little while, and for the first time I got a good look at my appearance.

What was reflected back at me from a mirror in one of the stalls made tears instantly start to form in my eyes. I could feel the wetness slowly begin to fall down my cheeks.

Seeing me like this made Yuugo and Shizune stop dead in their tracks. Shizune being the more motherly of the two; had a look of surprise and worry quickly appear on her face.

"Mako-san, are you alright?"

I could barely contain myself sobbing.

"I-It's m-my hair."

Yuugo looked at me quizzically.

"I know it's a bit uneven now, but that can easily be fixed."

I quickly tried to rub the tears from my eyes.

"N-No. You don't understand. I-It's green!"

"I don't see the problem."

My now shaky knees gave way, and I was full out breaking down.

"**I'M A FREAK OF NATURE!"**

Shizune tried to comfort me my lightly patting my shoulder though she seemed like she really didn't know what for, while Yuugo just stood there with an expression that showed she was clearly unimpressed. The rest of the group had already headed over to the restaurant at the first chance they got.

…

With the whole seal thing I could speak and understand Japanese, but that didn't mean I could actually read anything. In Japanese there are three different types of characters; hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is the basic alphabet, katakana is used to write foreign based words, and kanji is basically used in place of words.

The thing is I only know a handful of kanji. This means that menus are not my friends.

I squinted at the text, attempting to magically decipher whatever it said.

Why couldn't there be pretty pictures to look at? Jeez, this establishment needs to better cater to the illiterate.

I ended up just getting dango solely because it was the only food item that came to mind. Dream or not, free food is free food.

We all kind of awkwardly sat down at one of the back tables, eating whatever each of us ordered. I had ended up finally 'officially' learning everyone's names. The one name I didn't know was the sunglasses guy. He plainly told me that is was Kenji Sato. It didn't seem to be a character I recognized.

Because of me stating earlier that I didn't know what a Konohagakure was, Kakashi gave me a quick overview of the village I was from, what it was, what they did, ect. According to him they were on an escort mission in order to get me medical help.

I couldn't help shake the feeling that he was sharing the PC version they told to everyone. I knew that there was way more going on than taking missions to help people and training new ninjas.

This of course was said with his usual laid back attitude and a smile. Something about the whole conversation though just felt _off._ It's a hard feeling to describe, but it was definitely there.

I guess these guys in the end were still ninjas; insanely powerful killers. You don't want to be on their bad side.

We ended our little lunch, my thoughts still drifting back to my hair that was a sin against nature; and we set off once again. This time the destination was The Hidden Leaf Village.

* * *

AN: I wish I could gave gotten this up earlier, but I ended up gone for a couple of days. I was totally on a roll with story ideas at the time, but with no way to write it down...

Anyway, I hope I got the kanji explanation right, but I'm honestly a little unsure how to describe it myself.

I might go back later and edit some things if I remember anything I wanted to add in.


	10. Chapter 9

The Leaf Village.

Not exactly the place of my dreams, but overall it was pretty nice.

Ah, the buildings; the fusion between Japanese architecture and modern elements. If I had a sketchbook with me I would definitely be drawing some of this out. There is a big difference between seeing something on a page, and seeing it in the third dimension. And who could forget the biggest feature of the village, ninja Mount Rushmore? I wonder what would happen if they ran out of space on that thing.

Currently the group was on its way to see the Hokage.

We passed through the gate without much trouble, and then headed down one of the busy streets. You could see other ninja mixed in with the crowds, but none of them I was able to recognize.

I wondered what part of the story I was currently dreaming about anyway. Was it before Naruto left off on his journey, or after?

I guess I'll have to start fishing for information at some point.

Eventually we came to the Hokage's Residence. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. For the leader that you could consider to be of a country, it wasn't very grand. I don't know, maybe I just expected it to be a bit more White House type impressive, or even just a bit fancier than the average building. It was tall and red though. That's something I think.

We went inside, and after turning through a couple of hallways, and climbing a flight stairs we arrived at the Hokage's office.

It was relatively large; a desk at the front and Tsunade was sitting behind it.

She looked up, eyes darting to each of us before finally resting on me.

"Report."

Kakashi stepped forward, giving her a slight nod.

"Mission completed. There was an enemy encounter during the mission, but the objective was still met."

I hope there was some written report had had to do later, because if I was Hokage I would not be very happy at the extreme vagueness of that statement.

Tsunades' eyes narrowed, seeming to scrutinize the situation.

"Who?"

"Kisame, though we believe it was a chance encounter."

She looked surprised for moment, her expression soon falling back into a critical one.

"I expect a full report later."

So they were talking about Kisame, that freaky fish guy with the giant sword. What was that organization called again?

"Hey, are you guys talking about the Akasuki?"

All eyes turned to me, with a mix of bewilderment, shock, and what looked like killing intent. Sunglasses guy, ehem, I mean Kenji even pulled out a kunai out.

They remained quiet, so I decided that I might as keep talking.

"I can tell you their defining traits, abilities, and random other things if you want."

It's not like this was real. What did it matter if I gave then this information anyway? For all I know they could have it all already.

After another awkward silence finally Tsunade spoke up.

"Who are you?"

I just shrugged.

"My name is Mako as far as I've been told. So, do you guys want me to tell you or not? This free information I'm giving away."

She nodded, a fierce and skeptical look in her eyes.

"Continue."

Now I thought about it, almost all of my knowledge from the Akatsuki was from reading fanfiction. After I went through with reading The Akatsuki's Kawaii Kawaii Beach Party, all Ada did was recommend more Akatsuki fanfiction to me. At this point I'm not even sure what's cannon anymore. Deidara and Sasori were as far as I had gotten in the story.

Here goes nothing…

"Well, starting off with Itachi Uchiha, I mean Uchiha Itachi, his most defining trait is his blindness."

That statement raised a couple of eyebrows.

"It's from over using his Mangekyo Sharingan. He's slowly going blind and is also dying if I'm not mistaken."

Hmm, what else was there to say?

"Oh yeah! Under that cold exterior he is actually a really nice guy! And he's also secretly dating Sakura!"

I swear Tsunade's mouth actually dropped open.

"Well, moving on, Kisame, aka the freaky fish guy, is Itachi's best friend and has a sword that is alive. His sword is also a good friend, if not also the other half of his soul."

Powers next?

"He uses water jutsu and can transform to look like a majestic dolphin."

Wait, was it really a dolphin? Eh, whatever.

"Deidara really loves explosions and loves telling everyone that art is an explosion."

How many times did he say that phrase anyway?

"He has a totally rational hatred of the Sharingan because of his inferiority complex, and has one eye that is trained to resist its effects. Also, his hands have mouths."

The people in the room all had an expression of extreme neutrality.

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure he's actually a woman."

That raised a couple of eyebrows.

"Sasori is a puppet freak that actually turned his who body into a puppet. He keeps his heart or whatever it is in a compartment. That's his weak spot by the way."

Hmmm…

"I think those two are a pairing, but I personally think they're actually just friends."

I was totally on a roll now.

"Hidan is an immortal zombie who follows some crazy religion. If you every fight him I suggest trying to destroy the brain. If that doesn't work then just incinerate him somehow. Though he's a scumbag, he somehow has a lot of fan girls who have converted to his religion to be with him."

"Kakazu is Hidan's partner and loves money. He is has several hearts, which according to some sources give him the ability to love others even more. He really loves money."

"Nagato, aka Pein, has multiple bodies which are actually just puppets. He is actually hidden away somewhere and has some crazy eye powers that can bring back the dead. He also has a harem that contains Konan the paper chick and some other people."

I don't think I've spoken this much before to any of these people.

"Tobi is actually the leader of the Akatsuki and is using them in some grand scheme. He acts like a five year old, but is actually pretty smart himself. I'm pretty sure everyone hates him though."

I paused.

"There was something about a moon…"

What was it again? Probably not important.

"And finally, Zestu…"

"…"

"I don't even know."

I ended my little rant, hoping there wasn't anything I missed. I'm sure most of what I said was accurate.

The others looked at me with a mix of astonishment, confusion, and distrust. It seemed that even more people were starting to pull out their weapons.

There was a long silence allowing everyone to digest this new information. Tsunade had her eyes closed, hands clasped on top of one another. She spoke slowly, an edge to her voice.

"How did you come to know this information?"

Uh…

"Intuition?"

* * *

AN: I've been planning to write this chapter for a while now. I tried to cram in as many random Akatsuki stuff as I can think of into this. Some characters are harder than others.


	11. Chapter 10

AN: Thanks for all of the reviews so far! I'm glad to see that people are enjoying it.

* * *

A jail cell was the one place I thought I'd never find myself in.

My friends and I were ever the rebel types, and we weren't stupid enough to go off and get ourselves involved in things like drugs.

Yet here I was because I just spouted off a ton of top secret information. Was it a good idea to do so? I don't really know. Did it really matter what I did either way? I don't know that either.

Maybe it would have been smarter for me to hold off any major proclamations until a better time. I really hate the side of me that likes to act impulsively. I want to be considered intelligent human being, but I make it hard on myself when I do something so potentially stupid.

But that brings me back to the point whether it really matters what I do or not. If none of this is real, then what does it matter if I act rashly?

My eyes drifted along the ceiling, memorizing the lines around the tiles.

The cell I was in was pretty cramped. There was enough room for the cot I was laying on, a toilet in the corner, and a built in table. Water was leaking from the ceiling, the sound of the dripping echoing throughout.

Yup. Five star treatment.

I fair amount of time had passed since I had been dragged in here, food sent in as an afterthought. I hadn't done anything so far besides lay down and stare at the ceiling.

I could try sleeping, but that was something I avoided doing now. It seemed that no matter how many times I tried to go to bed and then wake up from this, I never really woke up. I was always stuck back here.

My inception style dreams weren't even very restful in themselves. That was mostly because I _didn't_ dream.

Some people claim that they never have dreams, but it's not actually true. We all dream, but we might just not remember it. When you really don't dream, all you can see is a black abyss. Nothing happens, and all you can do is watch.

Cautiously, I took a peak at my seal. I covered much of my right side, multiple different swirls and rings making it what it was.

Now that I thought about it, what if it was actually doing something to keep me here after all? It very well could be some sort psychologically induced thing. Maybe if I got rid of it in this world, I'd wake up again in the real one.

This theory seemed reasonable enough. If what the old lady said was true, I'd need a fuunjutsu master to unseal it.

Also, I still didn't know why Tsunade went to the trouble of 'helping' me in the first place. What was I to her exactly? Why would she use up some favor of hers to help me of all people?

I sighed.

At the moment there was nothing I could do about it anyway. I'm pretty sure that my constitutional rights were being violated by being placed in here like this.

What kind of government did Konoha have anyway? I seemed to be a Meritocracy, though I guess you could say it was an Oligarchy-

My thoughts were interrupted by sounds coming from my cell door. I immediately sat up, to see the apprehensive face of a ninja unlocking the door. Once he got it open, he motioned for me to come forward.

I exited, and we walked a little ways down a hallway until arriving at a somewhat intimidating steel enforced door. I was ushered in, and then promptly locked inside.

Where had I been brought now?

The room was pretty large with high ceilings, almost giving it the feeling of being inside a warehouse. Of course it was all grey, the prison color of choice. There were two chairs placed in the center that looked at least slightly more comfortable than if they were made of plastic. A clock was hung up near the door that ticked quite loudly.

Looks like I'm going to interrogated. Wasn't scar-face from the Chunin exams in charge of this type of thing?

No one was here yet, so it seemed that I had more alone time. Though who was to say they weren't watching me?

I quickly scanned the room. No security cameras in sight, but that meant pretty much meant nothing. If there was a jutsu to translate language, there was surely one that could act as a security camera.

I slunk down into one of the chairs, trying to ignore the ticking noise coming from the clock.

Psychological torture.

That's what that Ibiki guy specializes in.

I knew a bit about psychology myself since that's what my sister majored in in college. Whenever she came home, she would enthusiastically share random things she had learned so far. It was actually pretty interesting, and coupled with my summer obsession of watching Discovery and History channel, I knew a bit about the subject.

Even though I had probably been brought here because of my knowledge of the Akastuki, it made me question why I hadn't been brought here the moment I entered the village.

For a person that has apparently been in a coma for most of her life, nothing about me really adds up. I speak another language; I know how to function in society without being told anything about it, and the fact that I don't have brain damage from it in itself was truly a miracle.

…

_TICK TICK TICK_

I swear it was getting louder.

At the same time though, I couldn't help myself from tapping on the offbeat. I used to be in choir, so the constant ticking felt like a metronome. I really liked singing, not that I was particularly that good at it or anything. I was still fun, and it got me into the habit of singing out loud to myself when I was alone.

According to the clock I had been in here for twenty minutes. A ridiculously boring twenty minutes.

I couldn't help but hum out a song that had been stuck in my head for a while, and before I knew it I was singing it out loud.

"_Lean on me, when you're not strong. And I'll be your friend; I'll help you carry on!"_

Of all songs to get stuck in my head… I'll switch it up.

"_And so I wake up in the morning and I step outside, and I take a deep breath real high, and I scream at the top of my lungs, what's goin' on?"_

"_HEEY HEEY HEEY HEEY HEEY HEEY HEEY HEEY I say Hey, what's goin' on?"_

Better, but I basically only know the chorus. How about,

"_Just a small time girl, livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train goin' anywhere. Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit! He took the midnight train going anywhere!"_

At some point I found myself up on my feet, sing out as loud as I could.

"_A singer in a Smokey room, the smell of wine and cheap perfume! For a smile they can share the night. It goes on and on and on and on!"_

How long had it been since I've sung this? I had to learn it for a school concert once and there was even choreography to go along with it…

What was it again?

"…_Their shadows searching in the night!"_

Ah! Now I remember!"

"…_Don't stop believin'! Hold on to the feelin'! Streetlight people woahhh, woahhh!"_

I finished up my routine, holding the last note for as long as I could muster.

That was a lot of fun! What other songs do I know off of the top of my head?

I paused.

Wait a second. I'm going to be interrogated. Shouldn't I be taking it a bit more seriously?

…

Eh, who cares.

I should switch it up to things besides just pop music.

"_Finally now know what it takes, It takes money and airplanes!"_

"_I'm Insane! Well I can feel it in my bones, coursing through my veins! When did I become so cold?"_

Wait. Did I just admit insanity in the form of song?

"_You could be my luck. Even if the sky is falling down, I know that we'll be safe and sound!"_

"_I see this life like a swinging vine; swing my heart across the line. And my face is flashing signs…"_

"_I'm gonna fight em off. A seven nation army couldn't hold be back!"_

I kept singing. I never realized I had so much music stored in my brain. I guess that's what happens when you live in a world where it's heard every day.

"_Please David Bowie-sama-sensei-sempai-sensei-sama-sempai-sama! I told you I'm not David Bowie, and I wanted you to care for your ninja brethren-"_

The door to the room was slammed open with a residing 'thud'.

Oh come on! I was almost finished with the song!

Scar-face entered a smile plastered on his face.

I'm going to take that as a bad thing. A very bad thing.

"Sit."

I complied, quickly picking up my chair and moving it back into its original position. At some point there I had used it as a makeshift stage.

"So…"

Ibiki pulled out a kunai, throwing it so that it grazed by my cheek as it was impaled in the wall behind me.

"Tell me about yourself."

* * *

AN: I'm not sure if I quite pulled off the idea I was going for here. :/

Anyway, here are all of the beautiful songs in order I quoted from:

Lean on Me- Bill Withers (Am I the only one who really hates this song?)

What's Up- 4 Non Blonds

Don't Stop Believing- Journey (I'm so sick of this song... D:)

Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)- The Wombats

I'm Not a Vampire- Falling in Reverse (Such a catchy song...)

Safe and Sound- Capital Cities

Counting Stars- One Rebublic

Seven Nation Army- The White Stripes

Ninja Training Song- Ninjabridge


	12. Chapter 11

"So, care to tell me about what you were just doing?"

My eyes instantly drifted to the floor, heart beating at an increasingly fast pace.

"Look at me."

I didn't move.

A sudden pain crossed on my other cheek, followed by the sickeningly warm feeling of blood dripping down my face. I reached up with my hand to wipe it away.

I was grabbed by the wrist before my fingers even touched the spot.

"Raise your head and answer the question."

This time I complied, slowly raising my chin to meet his gaze. He stared back at me, his smile broad smile not quite reaching his eyes. My eyes immediately ran over the two massive scars that covered his face.

"Good. Now answer the question."

What should I say? How should I act?

The grip on my wrist suddenly became tighter.

"Killing time."

"Is that so?"

He let go of my arm, and I instinctually pulled back as quickly as possible. I rubbed the now sore spot. It wasn't broken, but it would probably bruise.

"What was it you were saying?"

This question took me by surprise.

"S-song lyrics?"

Ibiki's smile suddenly disappeared.

"You were speaking in a way different than our own. I'll ask again, what were you saying?"

Wait, was he trying to say that I sung all of that in English? But that wouldn't make sense though. The seal was supposed to translate everything I said. I don't think singing something would be the sudden loophole.

I guess I must have taken too long to answer, because Ibiki decided to restate the question with a much harsher tone.

"What did it mean?"

"I-I was just singing songs. None of them really have any deep meaning."

He stared at me, the corners of his lips tuning at an upward angle.

"Let's change up the topic and talk about you."

He pulled out a clipboard that I didn't realize that he had before, slowly flipping through its many pages. Stopping at one, he tapped on the clip board before turning it around the show me.

"It says here that your name is Kato Mako, age eighteen. Born December 10th. "

"Hair color green, eye color grey. Blood type B. Civilian. Height: 168 centimeters, Weight: 58 kilograms. "

He flipped a page.

"Has been in a coma since the age of one years old. Recently awoken from unknown cause."

There was a sudden look of absolute glee.

"Has knowledge of high level secrets, recommendation of immediate disposal after interrogation."

I couldn't help but shiver.

None of the details besides the last were even true. What kind of name was Kato Mako anyway?

I guess the last statement didn't have an as profound impact on me as he wanted, because Scarface felt the need to rub it in.

"I would have to agree with that assessment myself."

Even in his presence I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Should I even care? This was a dream, so it wasn't like I would actually die. In fact, dying might be a one way ticket out of here for all I know. Not that I was going to experiment with that any time soon…

I suddenly felt cold metal press against my neck.

"I see you take me too lightly."

There was sudden urge to gulp, but I resisted it.

"The Hokage favors you, but that means nothing to me, understand?"

I gave a slight nod, hoping to not bring my neck closer to the blade in the process. Ibiki pulled the kunai away while I tried to remain a stiff as possible.

"We both know there is more to the story than that. I'd like to hear your take on it."

"Well… I also have a wide variety of hobbies if you want to hear about them."

This actually resulted in a small eerie chuckle.

"You know kid, I kind of like you."

There is no way that's a good thing.

"Uh…Thank you?"

He laughed again, this time pulling out a kunai and twirling it around on his finger. I couldn't help but stare at it, anticipating his next movement. I knew what he was trying to do. He was using operant conditioning on me, changing my behavior so that the sight of a kunai would instantly invoke fear. Even though I knew what he was doing, it still kind of freaked me out. Oh psychology; a dangerous advantage in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.

"Now try again."

My hands started to involuntarily shake.

Screw it all. Might as well tell him the truth.

"I-I'm not from this world. Where I'm from this is all just a story, and I'm pretty convinced that this whole thing is a dream anyway. None of this is actually happening."

"Oh, is that so?"

Ibiki didn't look particularly moved. Might as well keep going with it.

"Yeah. Your whole world is the creation of some middle aged guy living in Japan."

"Where is this Japan? Is it where you say you're from?"

I shook my head.

"Not at all. I live in a different country entirely. "

"So this man, you claim he created this world?"

"Yes. So basically every bad thing that happened in your life is because of him. And he makes money off of it."

"So what you're telling me is that we are all just characters in some story?"

"Exactly. I'm afraid you don't have a very big fan base though."

Was… that a look of amusement on his face?

"Interesting."

Ibiki was quiet for a while, just watching me while I tried to avoid direct eye contact.

"Is this how you know so much?"

I shrugged.

"That's mostly from fanfiction actually."

"Fanfiction?"

"It's basically people writing out their fantasies for their favorite series. There is a lot of shipping usually involved."

"Shipping?"

"Having two characters that most likely never get together and writing stories about their paring."

"I see."

We went back to a long period of silence. Scarface just sat, musing over what I had just said. There wasn't much left for me to tell now. I basically just reviled the secrets of the secrets of the universe to him. It was honestly a load off to tell someone what was going on.

"I'll give you one more chance."

_Huh?_

I instantly sprung up from my seat.

"W-what do you mean?"

"That was quite the elaborate story you shared with me. You acted quite sincere, almost had me falling for it."

"But-"

Whatever pretense of being a civil human being was suddenly gone. His aura alone invoked absolute terror, making me want to go curl up in a ball in the corner.

This guy. I was at his complete and utter mercy. He could do anything he wanted to me and there was nothing I could do about it.

"There is a simple way to confirm the truth, though it could be extremely painful for you to experience."

"Go for it."

He looked genuinely surprised.

"Oh, Alright then. "

"I'll begin the preparations."

He got up, walking over to the door. Ibiki unlocked it, stepping over the threshold.

"You're an interesting one alright."

After a loud clang, the only sound that could be heard in the vast room was the constant ticking noise.

* * *

AN: I was trying to decide between making this one really long chapter, or splitting into two. In the end I decided to make it into two because it felt more natural for me to end it here. These chapters always seem much longer to me when I'm writing them out for some reason...

More interrogation stuff to come!


	13. Chapter 12

I suddenly felt something grab my shoulder.

Saying that I freaked out would have been an understatement.

I immediately flailed around, kicking and punching out at whatever was in my immediate vicinity.

I opened my eyes to see some middle aged blond man with a mullet standing in front of me. He looked familiar; pupiless eyes like a certain character I couldn't seem to remember the name of. He looked very calm, but there seemed to be something underneath it.

"You fell asleep. For someone in your position you seem very relaxed."

Wow, had I really? I guess I had been more tired than I thought.

I tried to stifle an incoming yawn.

Looking around the room I noticed that besides the ninja in front of me, Ibiki was there too. He was leaning against the wall by the door with his arms crossed; nothing to be read off of his blank expression.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Yamanaka Inoichi. I am part of the Konohagakure Intelligence division."

Now I remembered him. He was the father of Ino and part of the Ino-Shika-Cho group. I didn't really have an opinion of him either way, seeing as how he hadn't really shown up very much.

"What is it that you're going to do?"

He straightened up a bit.

"I am going to use a technique that will allow me to search through your memories. This way we can confirm your story."

I nodded.

"Oh, ok. Go ahead then."

"Alright."

He reached forward, placing his hand on top of my head.

"You won't remember anything that happens to you during the process."

"Got it."

Inochi took a deep breath before closing his eyes.

"I'll begin."

There was a slight pressure inside of my head. It was like the feeling of ascending quickly in an airplane. Over time though, it started to feel like someone was slowly filling up my head like a balloon. At some point it was just going to explode.

I could feel myself slipping away under the influence of some unknown force.

…

"Are you sure that's all the file says?"

"Yes. I requested all information access to be granted."

"This doesn't make sense though."

"It's your technique."

"I know that, but…"

Those voices… Where was I again? What had I been doing?

"Can't we just try it later?"

"The results will be practically the same."

"What do we do about the kid then?"

"She might still quickly cave, especially after this. You've made tougher men crack with less."

There was a snort.

"I've been barely trying up to this point. This one only has civilian status."

Ugh, my head. Why was it pounding so much?

"I think she's waking up."

"You're dismissed. I'll handle the rest."

"I'll be seeing you then."

There was the sound of footsteps and then that of a door being lightly pulled shut.

"Well,"

Someone had propped up my limp head by the chin.

"Care to share another story with me?"

Groggily, I opened my eyelids.

"A-a-n-nother?"

"That's right. It looks like what you told didn't check out after all."

"N-n-ot possible."

How? They should have known everything I said was true after that!

"I think you don't understand how I work. I get what I want."

Clearing up my foggy thoughts, I decided to do what should have been my first choice since I was put in here.

Lie.

"I-I'll tell you everything."

"Good."

My head was let go of, causing it to fall slack once again. Weakly, I picked myself up, trying to ignore the head ache.

"I-I was told recently that when I was asleep I had no spiritual energy. Though my body was here, in a way I really wasn't."

I didn't know what they had seen, but it couldn't have been much, guessing from their reactions.

"And how is that?"

"Spiritual energy in some places in also called a 'soul'."

If I remembered correctly, it said something along the lines of that on Narutopedia.

"I think at some point in my life my soul was separated from my body, unable to get back. I remember drifting along, able to see, hear and speak, but no one knew of my presence. It all felt like it wasn't real, yet it was at the same time."

Sure. Why not.

"How did you come to posses' high security information?"

"For some reason my soul was always attracted to people of power. I would always observe for a time before moving on."

"How is it you know how to speak in a different way?"

"I started off in a different land where they spoke a different language. Allot of my time was spent in that place, and it was only until recently that I began to feel the pull of a strong power from this area. Ocne I came close enough I even began to feel the pull of my body."

It's kind of true at least.

"What about the places you told me about before?"

"They're real. Japan is a country in-between this place and where I originally came from."

Ibiki paused for a moment.

"If what you say is true, then why did you tell me that all before? Why go through the memory scan over a lie?"

Um…

"I thought out of the two, saying that I was from another world was more believable."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, I mean at least it was to me. The best lies contain part of the truth right? I thought if you saw it yourself, you would more easily believe me. "

"And the words you mentioned before?"

"Those are all real things. There really is a guy out there writing a story about ninjas from Japan. The people who settled Japan were originally ninja, though now all the details surrounding them are just myths."

The room again went silent. Ibiki leaned back in his chair, taking out a kunai and pretending to be interested in it.

"Anything else you would like to tell me?"

"Uh, no. N-Not unless you have any more questions of course."

I tried to say this while flashing him my most sincere smile.

"Name."

"N-Name?"

"Have you always gone by Kato Mako, or have you been calling yourself something else until now?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"Kay."

"Kei?"

"That's the nickname I go by."

"So what is your full name then?"

I instinctually gave Scarface the fiercest glare I could muster.

"I'd _die_ before I tell anyone that. I've never told anyone it before, and I'm not starting now."

There was another laugh from Ibiki.

"Quite defensive over something so minor."

"Trust me; it's not minor in the least."

I couldn't help but shudder. I hated my full name more than anything in this world. Who knew what my parents were thinking when they named me. When I was old enough, the first thing to do would be legally changing it.

After a moment Ibiki got up from his seat, still chuckling.

"There are things much worse than death. We all learn that someday."

"That's nice."

He headed over to the exit.

"I hope we meet again sometime kid. I'm sure I'll have many more questions for you by then."

"You know, feel free to take your time."

Another laugh.

"We'll see."

* * *

AN: I had a really hard time figuring out where to go with the story, but I'm happy with what I went with.

I'm not sure how well I'm doing with characterization so far. ^^; I'm kind of nervous about writing any main characters in fear of monumentally messing up.


	14. Chapter 13

It was quite interesting indeed. What kind of process had they used to carve it? Using such a hard material it was possible they used contained explosions. Then again, they could've just used a ninjutsu to get the job done. This was delicate work however, a sloppy job wouldn't do.

"Are you done yet?"

"Just give me two more seconds!"

I could hear Daichi grumbling behind me, leaning against the side of a building. I had really wanted to check out the Hokage faces, try and toss around a couple of theories in my head about its creation.

After my last chat with Ibiki, I was promptly dumped back in my cell and then eventually released. I guess my story about being a disembodied soul was more reasonable to them than being from another dimension. Who knew?

The only reason I was walking around like a free man (with the exception of my temporary Jonin "body guard") was most likely because they had nothing concrete on me. If they had really wanted, I could have been locked up for the rest of my life. Instead they had given me an apartment to live it, a monthly allowance, and the promise that I would be kept under surveillance.

Hooray?

Now that I had gotten myself out of that sticky situation, I had all of the time in the world to go sightseeing! We had journeyed around the village, taking in all of the local architecture.

You know, the village gates are really quite impressive in person! Such a large scale too!

"Daichi-san, do you think you could take me to the library next?"

I had always been curious about what the libraries in the Naruto world were like. That, and if there were any math related textbooks to read. Math is a universal language, meaning that I could at least figure out that much without really knowing how to read.

Even if I was stuck inside a dream or whatever, falling behind in school wasn't an option. I was going to be an architect one day, dang it!

"Are you sure you really want to go _there_?"

I nodded enthusiastically, which caused Daichi to roll his eyes.

"Fine. I'll lead the way."

We both walked at a leisurely pace, though it was mostly for my benefit. I hadn't realized how weak my body really was. I don't think I had any muscles to speak of.

Just out of curiosity, I suddenly stopped at the side of the street to do a couple of pushups.

"O-one, T-t-two-"

I collapsed, panting heavily.

"What _are_ you doing?

"E-ex-exercising."

"Really? With that pathetic display I couldn't quite tell."

The gentleman he was, Daichi started to walk away.

"Wait!"

I scurried up from the ground, quickly getting back on his tail. He turned to make sure I was still in sight at least.

"Look. Unlike you, I actually have places I need to be today. I stopped doing babysitting missions a long time ago."

True enough. I literally had nothing to do at the moment besides hang out around the village. I still needed to figure out when I was, but a non-cannon character didn't seem to be the best one to ask. And asking oddly specific questions like, "Do you know Naruto Uzumaki?" was probably a one-way ticket back to prison.

We continued on for some time before reaching the library.

The building was quite large; several stories; definitely not something you could mix up with buildings around it. There was a large sign hung above the doorway that I couldn't read at all.

We climbed the steps, and after pulling open the doors headed inside.

I wasn't really expecting much, but it seemed like your average library to me. Well minus the computers, the area where they keep the CDs and DVDs, and the over abundance of teen paranormal romance literature. Several tables were set around the rows of book shelves, civilians and ninjas alike doing some sort of research.

When was the last time I had to dig through books to use on a school assignment? With internet, I had practically all the information I needed at my finger tips.

I walked around a bit, picking up a book here and there to try and figure out if I was in the right section. I wasn't having any luck. At some point I wandered over to the children's section, and out of curiosity picked up a picture book.

Hazzah! No unreadable characters in sight!

I searched through a couple more books until I found one that was meant to teach basic Kanji. It seemed like I would be able to learn a bit more after all. Sure it was meant to teach small children, but with this I would be just that much better at Japanese!

Daichi this whole time though had been following me at a reasonably safe distance, and had now decided to take the opportunity to stare and gawk.

"Just _why_?"

"I'm pretty much illiterate."

He shot me a confused look.

"When we first met, I could barely speak the language. That also goes for reading. I guess seals can only do so much."

He looked away, muttering something under his breath that I couldn't quite catch.

"Sanu-san!"

We both turned around to find the source of the voice. It was in fact that of a familiar pink-haired ninja. She looked like her version from Shippuden, which answered at least one question of mine.

She was sitting at a nearby table, a large stack of books off to one side. Several loose papers were strewn about, a few scrolls rolled open here and there.

Daichi gave her a slight nod.

"Haruno-san."

He headed over to her while I followed with the books still held under my arm.

"I haven't seen you around the hospital lately."

"Tsunade-sama assigned me to a several week long mission. I just returned, though I was over there a couple of days ago."

"Ah,"

Sakura gave almost a sheepish look.

"I was called in to be questioned over some Intel that was recently received."

Her expression turned suddenly dark.

"Some person gave them false details, which caused me to have to spend that whole day being interrogated over it. _When I find the person who told them that…"_

Oops. I guess that wasn't cannon after all…

Daichi to his credit said nothing in response.

"Anyway,"

Sakura quickly went back to smiling.

"Who is the person with you today?"

"This," He lazily waved towards me. "Is Kato Mako."

I nodded nervously. She wouldn't really beat me up, would she?

"Nice to meet you. I'm new to Konoha. Daichi-san has been showing me around the village."

More like assigned to do it, but it sounded better this way.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, a medical ninja like Samu-san."

Daichi shrugged.

"That's my secondary. My primary abilities lie in ninjutsu. I just help around when needed."

"Don't say that! You're one of our best. Even Tsunde-sama says so."

He just looked away, which seemed to frustrate Sakura a bit. I ended up picking at the corners of a book to and try and distract myself the sudden awkwardness.

"So, Kato-san, what kinds of things have you seen at so far?

I looked up are her, surprised to be suddenly thrown into the conversation.

"Oh, uh just calling me Mako is fine."

"In that case, feel free to call me by my first name then too."

I nodded.

"Well, for the things I seen so far; I've been to the village gates, a monument, the Hokage's faces, a couple of cool buildings here and there-"

"Samu-san! Why haven't you brought her to any interesting places?"

Daichi held his hands up, looking defeated.

"It's what she requested."

"She doesn't know the village as well as we do. There's tons of stuff to do around here that are way more fun than looking some building."

B-but what if I like looking at buildings?!

"Alright then, it's settled!"

Um…

"What is?"

There was a look of extreme passion in Sakura's eyes.

"I'm going to show you around tomorrow! I can meet up with you at your place around noon."

Daichi smirked.

"She's all yours."

_Hey!_

"Uh, sure. I live in building A, apartment number thirty-five."

"Great! I'll see you then."

I couldn't help but inwardly groan. Sakura was never my favorite character, especially with her Sasuke obsession. Now I would have to spend all day with her.

"Are you going to check those out?"

She was pointing to the books I was holding.

"Y-yeah."

"Oh! Do you have a younger sibling?"

"No… They're for me."

"Oh…I… I see."

* * *

AN: Kay is finally going to meet some cannon characters!


	15. Chapter 14

My apartment was pretty small by my standards; one bedroom, one tiny bathroom, and common area mostly taken up by a kitchen. There was a balcony though, that gave me the partial view of the Hokage's Faces. (Possibly as a message to tell me they were always watching?) All the place came with when I moved in was a twin bed and a low table for the kitchen.

Actually, it was kind of awesome. I'd be going off to college eventually, and dorm rooms were way smaller than this. I could change it however I wanted, and test my interior decorating skills in the process.

After receiving my first monthly allowance, I set up a budget for myself. I guess I can thank my middle school home ec. classes for something after all.

I earlier had Daichi show me around the different stores and market places in the village; which gave me the chance to buy a couple things. That list included an alarm clock, new clothes, a can of paint, some fruits and vegetables, and a gigantic amount of cup o'ramen.

Why ramen? Because I have about zero recipes memorized. Whenever I needed to make something other than canned soup, I'd always consult a cookbook or look it up online. And without proper guidance… I don't even want to think about the potential food poisoning.

But hey, I got chicken _and _shrimp flavor! So much variety! Unfortunately no cereal was to be found.

According to my clock, Sakura would be showing up anytime now. I doubled checked that everything in the apartment was in order. It seemed fine, so I plopped down on top of my kitchen table. I really needed to get some chairs soon. Maybe Konoha had thrift stores I could shop at.

Just as I started contemplating whether or not there was a ninja IKEA, a knock came from the front door.

Ugh. D-day has arrived at last.

I begrudgingly unlocked the door, opening it up to see Sakura standing there in front of me. She was wearing casual clothing and had a cheerful smile on her face.

"Ready to go?"

I slowly nodded.

"Yeah, let's head out."

…

"…and this is a great Korean barbeque place. We definitely should get some people together and go!"

So Korea wasn't a place in this world, yet they have Korean restaurants? Okay then…

We had visited several shops including a clothing store, a book store, and a little café. At some point we ended up going on a restaurant tour around the village. I keep zoning out, mostly to question the logic of the Naruto world.

"Mako-san?"

"Oh, sorry. Don't worry I'm listening."

She sighed.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I can tell you aren't all that interested, yet I kept dragging you around to places."

I gave her my most sincere smile.

"No, really. It's completely fine with me."

Weird. I never really thought that Sakura was the type of person who would be so thoughtful. Was it that Shippuden Sakura was just that different?

She paused in thought for a moment.

"Hey, how about this. Since you're new here, I could introduce you to all of my friends."

I was kind of surprised at the suggestion.

"Uh, yeah sure. That would be awesome."

She smiled back in response.

"Great! I'll have you meet Ino-chan first then. Her family owns a flower shop, so it's always fun to look around in there."

…

"Mako-chan~!"

After being introduced, I was suddenly greeted with a tight hug.

"Aw, you're so cute!"

How old exactly do I look too these people anyway?! I'm still a bit taller than them right?

"Thank you?"

Sakura stood there with her arms crossed, a smile threatening to appear on her face.

"Ino, I don't want you scaring her off. I promised to show her around the village today."

She released her grip on me, and I quickly to a stepped out of glomping range. There was a sudden flash of excitement around Ino.

"Oh, I see! I'll come with you guys then! We should find Hinata-chan and Tenten-chan and have girls' day out."

Sakura nodded.

"I was going to introduce her to them anyway, so that could be fun."

She then turned to look at me.

"So what do you think? Up for it?"

It's not like I could say no, and I was kind of excited to meet the other cannon characters too. As much as I had looked, I hadn't seen Naruto around anywhere. Chances are he would show up when those four were together.

"Sure, it's fine with me."

Ino let out a little cheer before walking to the over side of the room.

"Here, just give me a second."

She untied the apron she was wearing, and put it under the register desk.

"**Mom! I'm going out! I'll be back in a couple of hours!"**

There was a muffled response.

The three of us soon left the shop, Sakura and Ino walking on either side of me. Ino was a pretty chatty person, and she kept tossing any and all questions she had my way.

"You just moved here right? Where were you from originally?"

I had to think about how to answer that one.

"Um, a place far, far away. "

I guess that answer made her even more curious.

"What was it like? I know you're a civilian, but were there ninja?"

I shook my head.

"None. Ninja where I'm from are kind of just myths, and the ones that were around in ancient times could in fact, _not _defy the laws of physics."

"What do mean by 'the laws of physics'?"

"Oh, you know, like gravity, conservation of matter. What goes up must come down; you can't make something out of nothing. The sort of things that holds our universe together and you can't go against."

They both stared at me, confusion clearly showing on both of their faces. Sakura looked especially bewildered.

"I think I understand what you mean by 'gravity', but I'm not familiar with second term."

"Same here."

Why was I not surprised?

Ino had several points to make regarding the subject.

"I think I understand what you mean, but I don't get your explanations. With chakra we can do stuff walk upside down without falling, and create entirely new things using a jutsu."

"Yeah, where I'm from that's impossible."

"But how? Are they just not developed in their usage of chakra?"

"There is no chakra."

"No chakra?! How are they even alive then?!"

Must. Resist. Banging. Head. Against. Wall.

"You know, just forget I ever said anything."

"Oh, ok then…"

There was a pause before Ino perked up once again.

"Well anyway, you've got to tell me some more stuff about yourself! I like to know everything about my friends!"

She was considering me to be her friend already? That was fast. I barely knew her at all, yet she made up her mind just like that.

"Well, what would you like to know?"

"Hmm, how about-"

"Hey Ino, we should have her answer the questions we were asked when we made Genin. It seems fitting enough."

Some sort of nostalgic look passed between them, and I could kind of guess what they were reminiscing about.

Ino suddenly clapped her hands together.

"Alright then! Mako-chan, tell us your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future."

"Um, well…"

I had never had to tell this info to someone straight out before. I knew what I liked, but it wasn't that often that I just laid it out for someone.

"I like architecture, bunnies, the color purple, and sleep. My dislikes include…um…"

I knew I disliked a lot of things like any normal human being, but nothing really came to mind. Well, except-

"Dreams. We kind of have a love hate relationship at the moment. Oh yeah. And my hair. I really hate my hair."

Sakura jumped at that last state statement.

"Why don't you like your hair?"

"If you don't like the length, Sakura and I could cut it for you! It would look really cute right bellow your shoulders."

What's wrong with people in the Narutoverse? Don't they see the obvious issue?!

"Guys, its green. "

I had to stop myself from bursting into tears. I thought I had gotten over this… tragedy. Sure I had been avoiding mirrors after _the incident_, but I had slowly started accepting my role as an abomination to mankind.

They both started to look very defensive, Sakura especially looked peeved. Bonding over mutually ridiculous hair colors maybe?

"Did someone make fun of your hair?! _When I find them…"_

I waved my hands frantically in front of me.

"N-no! It's not that at all!"

"Mako-chan, your hair color is really beautiful! You need to have more self confidence!"

"Yeah! Don't let some idiot get you down!"

"Really, that's not the problem-"

I was interrupted by more "inspiring" words. They seemed very pumped up over this issue for some odd reason. I started to get the feeling after five continuous minutes of it, that they were saying it more for their own benefit somehow.

Before I was able to even touch on the other two questions, we arrived at a large, Japanese style estate. The Hyuuga's probably, seeing as how Tenten had no family background to speak of.

We stood around, waiting outside the gate for a short time until a figure slowly walked towards our direction.

Ino was to first to spot them, and took the opportunity to cheerfully wave.

"**Hinata-chan!"**

The figure did a slight bow, meekly replying in a quiet voice that didn't carry quite far enough.

As Hinata got closer, her eyes immediately darted to me, and then to the ground. She started to fidget a bit, trying not to look directly at any of us.

"H-Hello Sakura-san, Ino-san. I s-sensed you from my room."

Sakura was the first to respond this time.

"We're trying the get all of the Konoha eleven kunoichi together to hang out today. Are you interested in coming?"

"S-Sure."

I thought it was probably for the best that I introduced myself instead of just standing there.

I gave a slight bow like I had practiced in my Japanese class.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Kato Mako, though you can feel free to call by my first name."

I motioned towards Sakura and Ino.

"These guys are showing me around today."

Startled, Hinata immediately bowed back.

"H-Hello. M-My name is Hyuuga Hinata."

After another moment of wonderfully awkward silence, Ino practically jumped for joy, fist pumping into the air.

"Alright then! We just need to retrieve Tenten-chan, and then we're off to the bathhouses!"

Wait. _What?!_

* * *

AN: The last few days were kind of busy for me, so writing this took longer than I wanted it to. I hope I haven't written horribly OOC characters so far... Anyways,


	16. Chapter 15

"Did you just say bath houses?"

"That's correct! There's nothing more relaxing than taking a bath after a long week."

"Um…"

Right. That's something I forgot about Japanese culture. I wasn't sure if bath houses were as popular modern day, but they were still a thing. In the Naruto world though, it was _definitely _still a thing.

I gave them all a slight bow.

"Thanks for showing me around today. It was a lot of fun. "

I took a step back.

"I think I'm going to head home now."

Another step back.

Hinata looked at me nervously, while Ino and Sakura seemed kind of disappointed.

"What's wrong Mako-chan? Don't you want to come?"

"I promised to have you meet everyone today. Did we upset you somehow?"

One more step.

"N-No, nothing like that. I'm just suddenly _really _tired."

Ino put her hands on her hips.

"Then this would be perfect! If you're really that tired, we could just have Tenten meet us there."

Two more small steps.

"That's really nice of you to offer, but I think a nap is what I need."

The two of them suddenly swarmed me, Hinata standing at the back of the group.

Sakura grabbed one of my arms.

"Come on, it I'll be fun!"

Ino grabbed the other.

"Yeah! You still need to answer my questions!"

They both showed fierce looks of determination.

"G-Guys, I-I d-don't t-think we should f-f-force her to come."

I silently thanked Hinata. The others looked conflicted for a moment, causing them to loosen their grip on me.

I took this golden opportunity to tug away my arms and bolt.

"_Strategic Withdraw!"_

Running as fast as I could, I headed down the street, turning into the first corner I saw. I glanced over my shoulder. Good, no one in pursuit yet. There was no way I could out run highly trained ninjas; but with a good plan I might be able to pull it off.

In no way would this bath house trip of theirs would ever include me. I did not want to be stuck in such an awkward situation. I didn't want this dream to take such a weird turn.

I kept jogging for a good five minutes with no sign of anyone nearby.

After a little I slowed down, nearly out of breath. I had to laugh a little at myself. I was just over reacting. I mean it wasn't like they would necessarily-

A kunai suddenly whizzed by, nearly slicing off my nose.

Holly Crap.

I slowly turned my head towards the direction the weapon came from; just in time to see the three of them standing on the roof top of a nearby building.

J-Just Why?! I only ran away! That doesn't warrant trying to kill me!

Sakura made a point of cracking of knuckles, her expression turning into that of a vicious carnivore.

"**We were going to let you go, but after that stunt you pulled, you're going to come with us; whether you want to or not."**

I gulped.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

Okay, time to think. I can't win against them physically, but I'm older and have more life experience. That should count for something right? But then again, all of these guys are ninjas. They're trained to deal with situations like this.

However, they weren't exactly in the field. The leaf village is filled with the civilians that they were supposed to protect.

Alright then. Operation meat shield, commence!

I dived into the nearest restaurant, ignoring the greeter at the front door, circled around the waiters in the aisles, and after a grand leap over a table where a couple was currently dinning, slid into the back kitchen. The people working there seemed surprised to say the least.

You know, in real life I would have felt a lot of shame for doing that, but I guess the 'not caring' attitude had really gotten to me.

I quickly scanned the area. There was a giant fridge, a prep station, stove tops, a variety of giant pots and pans, but alas no door.

An older man looked up from the ingredients he was chopping.

"Hey you're not supposed to be in here!"

There had to be one here somewhere…

"Get out or I'm going to have you arrested!"

"By who? _The Uchiha police force_?"

He stood there in shock, his mouth slightly agape.

Ah ha, there it was! The door was partially covered up by a curtain.

I walked over to it, pushed it aside, and unlocked the door.

After dashing out, I found myself in a back alleyway. It would take the rest of them no-seconds flat to catch up with me.

The plan was now in motion. Time to go store hopping!

I rushed inside a building that was painted a light blue color; careful to close the door silently behind me.

It seemed that this time I wandered into the backroom of some store. Boxes were piled up all around, unopened crates stacked ceiling high.

I went through a door that led to the main area; which was apparently behind a register area. I almost rammed into the cashier with my speedy entrance.

After leaping over the counter and having many colorful curses thrown after me, I landed on top of a large pile of magazines.

Now that I looked around…

The store was really sketchy. The lights were dimmed down; a layer of dusk covered everything that wasn't new "merchandise".

It seemed that the establishment I had wandered into was where all of the perverts in town came to buy their "reading material." Where did they produce this crap anyway? Were there publishing houses in the Naruto world?

Either way, I needed to keep running.

I sprang for the door; and just as I was about to reach it, I found myself tripping and plunging face first into the wood flooring.

Ow.

After sitting up from the ground while clutching my pained face, I suddenly found my view being blocked.

"Yo."

I quickly scrambled backwards.

"**AH! Too close, too close, too close!"**

"Mako-san, I didn't know you were also a fan of this sort of thing~!"

Kakashi. Of course it was Kakashi. He was leaning over in front of me, smiling underneath his mask. In his hands were a large stackof books with orange covers.

I don't have time for this…

"I'm not. Just passing through."

I sprang for the door once again.

"Hold on."

Something about the tone of those words made me instantly stop and turn around.

"Y-Yes…?"

"Take the side door."

Huh?

Looking around the room, under all of the junk laying around there was in fact a side door.

But should I use it?

My eyes wearily drifted back to Kakashi. He was Sakura's sensei. He would be on her side then right? A potential accomplice to track me down. However, what would his motivation be in doing so? Personal satisfaction at my demise? Possible. Actually trying to help me? Possible as well.

Argh! I'm over complicating things! I'll just take the freak'n door. It won't throw off the entire plan.

After unceremoniously pushing the items aside; much to the store owner and Kakashi's dismay; I opened up the door.

…That led into a shop that sold ninja weapons.

Upon entry to the store, I accidentally almost impaled myself with a display katana someone was holding in their hands. I narrowly avoided skewering myself, but instead crashed into a barrel full of kunai.

This sent the loose kunai flying all around the room and hitting some of the unsuspecting customers. Luckily it wasn't hard enough to actually _injure_ anyone_. _But it was enough to seriously tick some ninjas off.

There was a sudden aura of killing intent filling the room. I could feel murderous stares boring into the back of my head.

Curse you Kakashi!

I-It was probably for the best I left now...

This time I didn't even bother this time looking for an alternate exit. I ran out the front door as fast as I could and down the street; not even bothering looking back.

…

"**There you are! Get back here!"**

After that last mishap the three of them had quickly caught up. I did my best to keep jumping in between buildings, but at some point I wasn't sure where I was even heading anymore.

At this rate I was going to be captured. I needed a new plan.

Scanning the horizon I noticed a tall fence that wrapped around a huge wooded area. I was quickly running out of buildings, and if this kept up there wouldn't be anything left.

As I got close the fence I realized that it was chain link, and there wasn't even barbed wire on top in some places.

No doubt my physical abilities sucked, but with adrenalin pumping through my veins I might be able to pull it off.

I quickly checked over my shoulder. I looked like was able to throw them off with my last building switch. It was now or never.

With burst of speed I ran to the fence, grabbing on and climbing as fast as my less than nimble hands would allow.

I had to move around a large sign that was tied to the fence. It had the number forty-four, and something written in bold red letters, but I didn't have enough time to stop and pay it any attention.

I heaved my body over the top, letting myself free fall the bottom.

Big mistake.

I landed on my right foot wrong, causing a shooting pain to go up my entire leg. I tried to ignore it; dragging my body farther and farther into the deep forest.

* * *

AN: Yeah... She's not going willingly to the bath houses.


	17. Chapter 16

AN: Thanks for all of the recent reviews!I really appreciate all of your comments.

A couple of you already figured out her new location. :D

* * *

"I think she might have gone in here."

"Really? I doubt it. Anyone who could read a sign would never step foot in there."

"I-I agree with Ino-san."

"Please just check with your byakugan."

"M-Maybe we s-should stop looking. W-what if she really doesn't want to be found?"

"Hinata-chan~! We can't just give up now! She just doesn't know how great the bathhouses are!"

"And I made a promise I intend to keep."

Why couldn't those two just listen to Hinata?!

I was sitting quite a distance away, only able to hear the conversation because of how loud they were currently talking. The tree trunk was getting uncomfortable, so I shifted my position.

There was a pause.

"What was that?"

Dang it.

"I-It c-could just be an a-animal."

"Right! Come on Sakura. There a still a couple of buildings around here. No one would be stupid enough to go in there!"

"I'm not so sure…"

"Let's go!"

I could hear the sounds of complaints, as someone was being hurriedly dragged away.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Hinata had really saved me back there. If she had wanted me to be, I would have been discovered in a matter of seconds.

The bigger issue here was that I was starting to realize that this was no ordinary forest. Besides the obvious clues I got from their conversation, here and there I could see things moving about.

Those things… were not your normal animal friends.

My options for the moment were limited if I wanted to avoid detection. Trying to climb back over the fence was not only stupid with them all nearby, but would also be painful.

After just trying move my foot a bit, all I could feel was searing pain. Even applying only a bit of pressure hurt. I didn't know much about injuries, but I hoped that at least it wasn't broken. But hey! With the magic of ninja medicine I would quickly be as good as new.

My best bet would to following the fence from a distance until I came to a gate.

I around searched the area a bit, luckily discovering a nicely sized walking stick to use as a crutch. I propped myself up, getting pressure off of my injured foot.

It looked like this would do nicely.

Next, I backed away from the fence as far as I could while still keeping it in my sights. After that, I started walking in the opposite direction of where Ino and the others headed.

My system seemed to be working out relatively well. No one had come looking back this way; though I was moving at an excruciatingly slow pace. I really had used up all of my energy. I was very tempted to just sit down and take a nap somewhere. However, the constant sounds of creatures scurrying about immediately changed my mind.

The sky was quickly getting darker, yet I was still unable to find an exit. At this rate I was going to have to spend the night in here.

My parents had taken my sister and I camping when we were little. They went to the trouble of buying a tent and equipment, hoping to make it an annual thing for us all to do. Unfortunately, after camping only once or twice, somehow the idea got pushed to the back of the to do list. They said they didn't have time for it anymore with their busy work schedules.

Well, if I remembered anything from my marathons of Survivor Man and Man vs. Wild, I needed to find a source of water, set up shelter, and if possible make a fire.

I peered into the depths of the forest. …Did something just _slithe_r _by_ me?

On second thought, I wasn't that desperate.

In the end though, I found a nice little area under the roots of one of the massive trees to rest. At first, my thoughts lead me to try and sleep on a higher branch, but the trees were too tall to ever attempt to climb it without the assistance of magical ninja powers.

I barricaded the space as well as I could, propped up my foot, and kicked back for the time being. As intimidating as the forest might be, nothing would ever come close to the _things _I saw when we exited the mountain. I guess that wasn't saying much seeing as how I was now by myself.

Now that I was in a world where chakra was a thing, I wondered if it was possible for me to use it now too. I picked up a scattered leaf from the nearby ground.

There were bits and pieces I remembered from Sakura's chakra explanation from the earlier chapters. I knew there were substances called physical energy and spiritual energy. Somehow these two were mixed together to create chakra.

There was some sort of exercise using leaves used in a flashback. I think it had to do with concentration practice.

I placed the leaf between two of my fingers, trying my hardest to somehow draw the chakra to that spot. After several minutes of nothing happening, I tossed the leaf aside, letting it fall back to the ground.

Stretching out my stiff fingers, I started to wonder I was missing something really important. What was chakra supposed to feel like anyway? I felt no different than usual; nothing seemed to be particularly scream 'ninja'.

Didn't Naruto sometimes have to spend time gathering chakra before using a technique? Well, I'm guessing he actually had to all of the time. He later on probably just got better at it.

I picked the leaf back up, trying to concentrate the chakra in my fingertips.

There was sudden rustling of leaves outside my area. Immediately, I grabbed for my stick and a rock I had picked up along the way.

My heart started to beat rapidly; palms growing sweaty. Whatever it was, I needed to strike as quickly as possible.

I waited, ready to pounce.

There was a bit of movement as something small came into view. It had grey fur, long ears, and beady eyes.

I let the tension drain from myself, taking a sigh of relief.

I was just a cute little rabbit hopping around the forest. Its little nose twitched as it sniffed the ground in search of food.

I let out an audible 'awwwwww'. It was just so fluffy and adorable!

I quickly made a decision.

"I will name you Hoppy. I will love you, and squeeze you, and never let you go."

Just as I was about to take a close looker look, there was a quick flash of green. Where the bunny once was, a giant snake took it place. As huge as it was, you could see a small bulge being swallowed through its body.

If it wasn't for the fact that its height and width was that of a golden retriever, I would of run over there and beat it down without mercy.

How dare it eat one of Go-Masashi Kishimoto's precious creatures!

Quickly, it finished up its meal; now turning to look at me. It opened its mouth, fangs dripping and forked tongue showing. My first reaction was to throw the rock at it.

The one skill that I'm most proud of would have to be my hand eye coordination. My years of being forced to participate in a summer softball league really helped hone my abilities.

With as much strength as I could muster, I threw it inside of the snake's mouth, aiming for one of its fangs. The rock connected, causing the snake to reel back for a moment in surprise. It quickly regained its composure though, now heading towards me faster than ever.

I braced myself, hoping to stab it with my stick as a last resort.

Out of nowhere, some type of cheetah- tiger hybrid pounced down on top of the snake, sinking its teeth deep into its skin, beginning to rip it to pieces. I was about twice the snake's size; however they were now in an intense fight against one another. The snake was trying to bite and squeeze it's opponent to death, while the cheetah-tiger was trying to eat it and slash it with its razor sharp claws.

During all of this, I was still sitting under the tree roots. My path was blocked by the scuffle, so for the moment I was stuck.

I gulped.

This wasn't the way I wanted to go. I didn't want to end up as one of those headlines about a freak accident. There was no desire for me to join the ranks of the lady who got her face ripped off by a monkey, or the guy who got mauled by a bear when hiking.

I need a plan and quickly.

To the back of me was the trunk of the tree, the giant roots overlapping to make a ceiling and walls. It was a nice little hiding place, but that meant almost nothing to dangerous predators. Being part of a root system, it gave me the advantage of nothing being completely solid. There were several gaps in the area above me, some even looking big enough to squeeze through.

I quickly checked my foot. The swelling had been gradually getting worse and I had ended up taking off my shoe off because of it.

There was nothing I could do about it for the moment. I had the leave now if I wanted a chance to escape.

I heaved myself up, making sure to bring my walking stick with me. I finally got a good grip on the roots above, setting myself about level with the cat thing.

They were still busy, but by the amount of blood being splashed around it would end soon enough.

I slowly circled around the tree, setting myself in the opposite direction of the fight. Shakily, I slid down, half dragging, half running away. It was getting darker by the minute, making me completely lose my sense of direction.

My heart was racing, my foot starting to feel like it was a two ton weight. Something in me felt like it was about to break.

Who was I kidding?

I couldn't out run that thing. I might not fear death, but I didn't want to die like this. Pain was still pain. That had just been proven to me.

If only I knew how to use chakra… or better yet hadn't gotten myself into this situation in the first place.

I couldn't help but question the Naruto world's logic one last time. Why have a forest full of dangerous animals in the first place? Well, unless…

Unless I was in the Forest of Death.

_Stupid. Stupid. Stupid._

Why hadn't it occurred to me before? Because I was idiotically distracted, that's why. Trained ninjas had died in here, and I was only a civilian. I stood no chance.

Well this sucked.

I could hear a loud roar behind me, signaling the winner of the fight. The sounds of crunching undergrowth became louder and louder, my attempts to run being more and more futile.

If I had any regrets, it would be that I never learned how to use chakra.

Even if it was just a dream, having powers was something we all wished we could do. Fighting the bad guys; ignoring our everyday dose of reality; being _special_.

I looked at my hand once more.

When Naruto had to learn the Rasengan, he had to focus on a dot in his palm, drawing his chakra to that somehow. The chakra system was a thing right? Like an extra organ people had. I guess I had it now too.

With the last of my concentration, I put everything I had into my hand.

There was a faint little chuckle, which I realized came from myself. This was a pretty stupid way to spend my last seconds.

Suddenly, I felt a slight tingly feeling envelop my hand, a shimmery blue aura now surrounding it.

Well what do you know; I could to it after all.

The celebration was short lived, as the creature had finally caught up with its prey. I pointlessly turned to face it, stick in hand. In the very least I would fight until the end.

It came at me pouncing, fur covered in blood and claws gleaming in the moonlight. I set myself up in a batting stance, ready to attempt a final home run.

I swung.

I missed.

* * *

AN: Wow. That was a such a cruel cliff hanger; yet I just couldn't help myself. On to the next chapter! :D


	18. Chapter 17

"_Kay!" "Kay!"_

"_Oh thank God, she's awake!"_

"_Oh sweetie, we were so worried!"_

"_K-Kay?" "Kay!"_

"_Why isn't she responding!?"_

"_I'm not sure."_

"_Then do something about it!"_

"_I assure you ma'am, we are currently doing everything we can."_

"_I don't believe that! There has to be something more!" _

"_Please ma'am. If you can't calm down I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."_

"…_Fine."_

"_K-Kay…"_

...

"Can't you do something about it?"

"Trust me I'm trying my hardest. She's just lost too much blood."

"I can give some of mine if that's what it takes. I'm type O."

"I don't have the proper equipment with me. I can't do a transfusion until we reach the hospital, and there's no way we can move her in this condition."

"Do I have enough time to make a run?"

"I doubt it, but you can try if you want."

"Her chances?"

"Low. I'm surprised she's held on this long. Will power I suppose."

"I guess she'll need a lot of that then."

"Yeah…"

…

"_Her vitals are looking better."_

"_W-Will she be okay then?"_

"_We'll have to wait and see, but it seems her condition is slowly improving."_

"_I need you to call your father. He needs to be here."_

"_I already have. He told me that he's on his way."_

"…_.W-What was that?!"_

"_I'm sorry, but I afraid I need you both to step out for the time being."_

"_But you just said that she was fine now!"_

"_Some complications just came up."_

"_I-I she going to die?"_

"_Please, I need to make room for my team to work."_

"_L-Let's go sit in the lobby and wait, alright? Let the doctor do his job."_

"_B-But I-I want to be here with her in case- in case she-"_

"_Please, you need to go."_

"_Maria. We need to go."_

"_O-Okay."_

...

"Stay with me. C'mon focus on my voice. Don't close your eyes now."

"Is it working?"

"Seems to be. I can't believe you made it in time."

"I know a technique."

"Thought as much. How did you find her in the first place?"

"She passed by me earlier. I saw her head in this direction."

"And you didn't stop her?"

"I didn't think she would head _here_ of all places. Besides, you know the rumors."

"As her usual tail, I can go ahead and discredit those for you. She's strange, but not dangerous."

"Hmm. Then why still follow her?"

"Orders from the higher ups." "Hey! Keep em' open! It's alright, it's alright."

"I see."

"_W-What, W-Why…?"_

"Don't talk too much. You're going to be okay now; we're here to help you."

"_M-My Mom… my sister…"_

"Is she hallucinating?"

"Possibly." "Hey! You can't get up yet. I still need to heal you."

"_D-Daichi?"_

"Yes, I'm here. Kakashi-san is also. You remember him right?"

_"Y-Yes."_

"That's very good. Do you remember why you're here?"

"_B-Bathhouses."_

"I think that answers my question."

"We're going to need to get her more help soon. I've done almost everything I can at the moment. I'll need your assistance."

"Just tell me what to do."

"Help me gently pick her up." "You're going to be moved alright? Try not to jerk around too much."

"_Mmhm."_

"Keep your eyes open! Don't quit on me now!" "We better hurry."

"Got it."

"Stay with me Mako, okay? Stay with me."

* * *

AN: This is my shortest chapter so far because it's only dialog.


	19. Chapter 18

My body felt heavy for some odd reason; like someone had decided to dump several tons of cinder blocks on top of me and then called it a day.

Something had happened to me, but what was it again?

I tried to clear my head for a moment.

Oh right. In my last attempt to fight back, I got mauled by a cheetah-tiger after being tackled to the ground. The last thing I remembered was the pain of people stabbed in the chest.

There was also some crazy dream I had that included my Mom, my sister, Daichi, and Kakashi for some odd reason.

Now that I thought about it, my eyes were still closed. I tried my best to open them up, an invisible weight holding them down.

Well, now that I had died in my dream, and if my theory was correct, I should finally be back in my own bed. Home sweet home awaits!

With a lot of effort, I was finally able to pry my eyelids open to see a crowd favorite; an off white ceiling. Craning my neck downwards, I discovered that I had winded up in a hospital room.

Judging by the low-techness of it all, I was still in the Leaf Village.

Even after a surely fatal wound, I was somehow still alive. Did that mean then that in my dreams I was un-killable?

It seemed possible. If that Hidan guy could be immortal, why couldn't I? Well I guess that would mean joining a crazy religion though, which I would never do, but-

A hand gently pressed down on my shoulder.

"You need to lie back in order not to aggravate your injuries any further. "

Ignoring this advice and slightly startled, I quickly sat up and turned to stare at the person who had been talking to me.

That had been a bad idea.

My top half of my body felt like someone had just stabbed it through with a pitchfork and dumped hot sauce on top.

"W-What are you doing?! Lay back down!"

The person taking care of me was a younger looking man with long purple hair and a strong jaw line. His whole appearance looked a bit disheveled; several hairs falling out of the pony tail he kept it up in, dark circles under both of his eyes.

The guy looked really familiar for some reason; though I couldn't say where from.

"Do you want to die from bleeding out?!"

"S-Sorry…"

I laid back down in bed, still glancing at the doctor. He let out a long sigh before rubbing his eyes. The guy looked like he was doing some sort of paper work, furiously scribbling away.

After several minutes of this and no more follow up statements, I finally got up the nerve to ask him a couple of things.

"So…"

He looked up from his papers.

"What exactly happened to me?"

He went over the foot of my bed and picked up a clip board. After flipping to the second page he began to read out loud.

"A broken ankle, a partially collapsed left lung, a couple of broken ribs, but most importantly a punctured heart."

I couldn't help but reel back in shock. Did anyone even live after having their heart punctured?

After seeing my expression, the doctor's expression began to look a bit more sympathetic.

"Luckily, some ninja were nearby to save you before you were completely mauled."

So I really was mauled then?! Wow, I'll have to one up someone with this story later.

"I should probably go and thank them."

He nodded.

"They've both come by to visit you recently, but it would be nice for them to see you when you're awake."

"Wait. How long have I been unconscious?"

"Almost about a week now."

Huh.

"Then how am I not completely healed?"

He looked a little taken back.

"What do you mean? Nothing can be healed that quickly."

"But with medical ninjutsu, can't you pretty much heal anything in about a day?"

"No."

Well that was kind of disappointing.

"What about healing the blind and crippled?"

"No."

"Giving everyone perfect vision?"

"N- Well, I guess we've never put forth the resources for that…"

He paused for a moment in reflection.

"Actually, with Tsunade-sama leading the project we might be able to do it… Improved vision would also help with capabilities in battle…"

"You could also market it towards civilians. I'm sure allot of them would be interested."

"True… We could even charge them and put the money back into the village fund…"

"While you're at it, maybe you guys could also start doing dentistry work."

"Dentistry?"

"It has to do with the health of your mouth and teeth."

"We have been advising the citizens for years to pay extra care to that sort of thing…"

"See? And you can raise awareness while also improving people's overall well-being."

"Hmm. I need to bring this up with the Hokage…"

"You should. I think these small changes will really improve the village."

He sat in silent reflection for a moment, pondering and jotting down a few notes. Suddenly, the doctor bolted upright, his eyes almost bulging out of his head.

"W-What am I doing? I need to report the situation immediately!"

Just after that he speedily darted out the room.

Since the doctor was out of sight, I slowly started to sit up again, this time taking care not to hurt myself too much. I first noticed that under my hospital gown I was wrapped up tightly in layers and layers of bandages. I was in a fact a little curious about what kind of scar I would have. My arms looked a little beat up to, and there was a bulky cast on my foot.

This sucked. I swore things healed faster than this in the Naruto universe. Now I had to hang around a boring hospital room all day until I was released. Maybe I could get my hands on a deck of cards and kill time that way.

_TAP TAP_

I turned towards the source of the noise. Inoichi of all people was standing there, knocking on the door frame.

"May I come in?"

So they didn't buy my story after all then? Or is he here for more information? Either way, this was bad…

"S-Sure."

He stepped inside, giving me a slight nod of the head. He sat down in one of the seats, pulling it up close to me.

"I'm sure you remember me Kato-san? My name is Yamanaka Inoichi of the Intelligence Division."

I nodded.

"Good. Then you know why I'm here to visit you today?"

I gulped.

"To throw me a get well party?"

"Not quite."

His face remained blank, an almost sereneness about it.

"Although you are not a ninja, you have recently gone through a traumatic near death experience. I know it's so sudden after you've woken up, but I'd like to let you know that I will be providing therapy sessions for you."

…_What?!_

"Seriously, this doesn't bother me at all. I don't need therapy."

Who cares? This is all a dream. How could something that never really happened be deeply traumatizing?!

"I know it may feel that way right now, but in time you will come to understand what I mean."

"Isn't this a conflict of interests though? As my therapist we won't be able to make a very good connection; seeing as how you helped to interrogate me."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"I'm the best at what I do, and I _will _do everything I can to help you."

That really isn't that reassuring….

"Anyway,"

Inoichi stood up from his seat.

"Our first session won't be for a couple of days. I hope for your speedy recovery."

He put the chair back in place, swiftly exiting the room.

I kind of just stared off in space for a moment, wondering why I couldn't have just died and not have had to deal with this.

Either way, it was going to be interesting.

* * *

AN: Inoich is back!


	20. Chapter 19

My time at the hospital had been pretty uneventful so far. Basically all I did was sleep eat, and get my bandages changed. I knew TVs existed in the Naruto world, though they never really seemed to use them for anything. There had to be ninja cable out there somewhere. If there was, they should at least put some TV's in hospital rooms in order for the patients to not go crazy.

Being alone though did give me some time to stop and think. Most people around here seemed to be visited by people, but not surprisingly I hadn't. It's not like I really knew anyone anyway.

Did Mako even have a family? You'd think they would be the first to visit after so many medical miracles. But what about Tsunade? She for some reason had interest in me, and was even willing to go to such great lengths to help me. It was highly unlikely I was someone like her daughter, and I didn't think she had any family to speak of anyway.

On the other end of the lists of problems, it seemed that dying to wake up wouldn't be as simple as I thought. It looked like getting my seal unsealed was my best bet. The only character that I could think of who knew anything about sealing besides Kakashi, would be the Sanin Jiraiya. He went off with Naruto to train, but since this was Shippuden he should be around somewhere. Once I was released from the hospital I needed to go find him.

I guess I had a plan then.

With the time I had I also started messing around with chakra again. If was pretty hard at first, but once I got the feeling down, wielding chakra became suddenly a lot easier.

It was so cool!

Maybe it was childish, but having your hands spontaneously glow blue is pretty awesome!

Either I had low chakra reserves, or that 'technique' just took up a lot of chakra; but I got tired out pretty easily. I wasn't able to keep it up for very long, and once when a nurse walked in, I significantly freaked her out pretending to imitate Shippuden Sakura punching with glowing hands.

One day though when out of boredom, when I had been driven to making origami out of the paper in my medical analysis clipboard, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata came to visit me.

I had actually seen Sakura walk by my door a couple of times, but she had never entered.

I waved over to them.

"Oh, hey guys. Sorry about that whole running thing…"

Sakura furiously shook her head, the three having a collective look of shame on their faces.

"No, we need to apologize. We should of… We never…"

Ino suddenly but in.

"Mako-chan, we're sorry that we chased you, and that you got hurt because of us. Please accept this, though it isn't much."

She handed me a vase full of flowers in several different shapes and colors.

"Oh, uh thank you."

I took it graciously, setting in down on my bedside table.

Hinata looked down at the flooring, fidgeting while looking like she wanted to say something.

They were all quiet, each of them looking deeply remorseful in their own ways. These guys… Though I hadn't known them for long, aka less than a day; they kind of reminded me of my own friends. Hinata was a bit like Ada, and Ino reminded me of Rachel. I couldn't let them go on feeling bad about something they didn't do. They were acting like they had attacked me themselves.

"Guys, it's not your fault. Its mine."

Sakura started to protest.

"But-"

"Really, it is. I'm the one who got myself into that who predicament in the first place. I should have been more careful about reading signs."

Eh, well either way I made a resolution. After finding Jiraiya the first thing I was going to do was learn more Kanji.

"Mako-chan…"

"Hey, it's not like I got nothing out of this either! Do you realize how much fun it will be to gloat about this?!"

This time it was Hinata who spoke up.

"G-Gloat?"

"Yup! Don't you ever talk with your friends about stuff that happens to you, then another person says something worse that happens them, then you go back in forth trying to gain some meaningless sense of accomplishment?"

"N-No…?"

"Well trust me. It will be hard to beat this."

It would probably end up in the category for the weirdest dreams, but that was beside the point.

"Plus I'll get a cool scar story out of it."

It's always embarrassing when people ask about a massive scar you got from doing something really stupid. Well this might actually fall into that category….

"O-Okay."

The three looked more dumbfounded now than anything. This was kind of a good sign. No need to go back to the depressing atmosphere.

"Hey! You guys are all ninja's right? Tell me about what you do!"

They all perked up a bit, Sakura looking especially proud.

"We all fight to protect the village by taking on various missions along with our teams."

"Teams?"

"We're all assigned to teams once we graduate from the academy. They are made up three Genin and a Jonin sensei."

I nodded, already knowing this, but a little refresher never hurt anyone. Annoyed, but never hurt.

"That cool. So what kinds of people are on your team?"

There was a strange look that quickly flashed on all of their faces. Just as quick as it appeared, it vanished. Sakura smiled brightly, though in my opinion it looked a little forced.

"They're all nice, though Kakashi-sensei is kind of strange."

So she was dodging the question then.

"Hatake-san? I think I've met him before, so I get what you mean."

"Oh you have! Where?"

Uh… I honestly didn't have many good options to answer with.

"Ah you know, around. Reading."

Something about that sentence resonated with Sakura, causing her to become pretty ticked off.

"_That pervert…"_

"So Mako-chan~! Once you're out, we need to go and celebrate. You still need to meet everyone!"

Sakura chimed back in.

"Yeah! It's a perfect time to go to that Korean Barbeque place I mentioned."

"Uh guys?"

"Yeah?"

"What's up?"

"I've been meaning to ask this, but is Korea a place to you guys?"

Sakura thought over this for a moment.

"It is, however it's not on this continent. From what I've read they're pretty isolationist and their leader isn't exactly known to be well. He apparently claims to be a god from another world.

"Huh."

"That and it seems that they have no ninja, yet say that they are powerful. However, they really don't even matter on a grand scale of things."

"They have really good food though~!"

"Agreed."

…Did I just discover North Korea's secret?

…

We all ended up talking for a while longer, the conversation slowly wandering away from ninja related topics. By the time they left it was almost dark, and visiting hours were almost over. For a while longer I had time to myself.

I laid back in bed and listened the noise of the people outside for a moment, trying to blank out my mind.

There was one last thing I had been thinking about, though I had been trying my hardest no to. I guess all the distractions in the world wouldn't be enough in the end. Some things though, you never want to face.

That 'dream' I had. It was… unnerving. In the end I really had been saved by those two, and the injury symptoms seemed to add up. However, then what was with the other part?

My mom, my sister, why were they there? I was there, yet I wasn't? How did that work anyway?

Questions like these had been pilling up since I got stuck in this dream. Was it really a dream after all? But I've woken up from it before. Naruto is just a work of fiction right? Of course it is. Nothing can go against cold hard logic right?

I can feel pain though. But isn't it just in my head? Does it even matter if I get hurt?

Why am I even here in the first place?

I just wanted to keep doing what I'm doing and have fun with it. Was that so wrong?

* * *

AN: Two chapters submitted in a day. I'm on a roll!

I might go back and edit my last chapter. I kind of rushed parts of it.


	21. Chapter 20

I couldn't help but be a little nervous about the current date. Inoichi had said that he would be back soon. A week had passed since then, but there had been no sign of him.

I probably should have been happier about that fact, but instead it put me constantly on edge. Sakura and the others had visited a couple of more times, but as hard as I tried I wasn't able to pry much information out of them.

My civilian rank wasn't exactly helping my cause either, but it wasn't like I could just go off and become a ninja. I was apparently already eighteen; way too old to be enrolling in the academy. Plus I was a considerably sketchy person, though by seeing that Daichi hadn't shown up again to watch me, probably not as much anymore.

Where was that guy anyway?

I guess I needed to add searching for him onto my to do list. For all I knew he could be on some sort of mission.

I stood up from my bed, doing a little stretching here and there. Though I initially didn't think so, my body was actually healing pretty fast. I was going to get the cast on my foot off any day now.

After being caught singing a bit, or as the nurse put it, "disturbing the other patients" I ended up starting to wander around the hospital.

The purple haired doctor, whose name ended up being Takoa Yuki, was someone I saw a lot. It seemed that he had been in charge of my care since I had been in a coma. Ever since my miraculous recovery, had been slowly going crazy over trying to figure out what exactly happened. The poor guy. I'm guessing he didn't have much access to confidential information.

There was a bit of gossip I overheard among the staff stating that if he kept it up, he was going to have to go in and get some professional help.

Hey! We could be therapy buddies! I'm sure he would love that!

For the moment though, I was kind of stuck entertaining myself with whatever. I even bothered to finally officially look at myself in a mirror.

It took me several tries to get up the courage, but I eventually got myself to stand in front of a bathroom mirror.

Hesitantly, I stood there, eyes closed shut.

I just needed to look quickly and get it over with. No big deal. It would be perfectly fine.

Slowly, I cracked open my eyelids, a blurry figure coming into view. I had to stop myself from immediately running out of the room in terror from the blurs of green, but as my vision became more focused I soon got a good look at my features.

Well, my height seemed similar, and my skin tone was about the same as my normal one. The rest of my face though… there was nothing recognizable about me.

I couldn't help and jump back in surprise for a moment, poking myself to make sure it was all real.

In describing myself, I guess you could say I had the potential to be attractive if I weren't so disheveled and pale looking. I looked a bit younger than my apparent age; maybe abut fifteen or sixteen. This still wasn't close enough my actual age of seventeen, but I guess I would just have to deal with it. My eye color was especially weird to look at, being used to having blue eyes stare back at me every day.

Getting over my initial shock, I started making a bunch of random facial expressions to try and figure myself out.

My smiles looked pleasant enough, and the puppy dog eyes face had potential. Next, I made the most furious, pissed off expression I could handle.

I flinched at the sight of my own face, a shiver quickly going down my spine.

When I looked mad, I looked absolutely terrifying. It was almost a murderous look on my face.

Wouldn't want to run into myself in a dark alley.

I made the expression again, this time trying to take closer look at myself.

After looking for a bit, I noticed it was mostly in the eyes. They had a more angular shape to them than most eyes, which really came out in full impact when angry.

Well, the more you know I guess.

I spent a bit more time making faces, my 'kawaii' expression completely throwing off whatever initial fear I had over myself.

The next issue though was still my hair. I could stop myself from instantly breaking down in tears now, but I still hated it.

The hair itself went well below my shoulders, almost midway down my back. Over all, it was uneven in several places; like someone had tried to cut it in layers, but had failed horrendously. They might as well of taken a weed whacker to it to get this effect. It probably would have looked better if they had.

If I had scissors with me I would have sat there and cut it, or better yet with a kunai. Kunai seemed to be the scissors of the ninja world.

The color of my hair itself was a light shade of green, but was still pretty vibrant. It looked like something you could pick out of a crayon box.

I guess it might make good camouflage in a forest; but then again, since when had Naruto ninjas cared about dressing up to blend in?

After my musings on whether or not Naruto's orange clothing was acceptable for a ninja, and making a mustache and beard out of long stands of hair, I headed out again to do a bit of wandering around. As I turned to exit the room, I found the doorway blocked by a younger looking nurse.

She looked a little confused, staring at me with a bewildered expression. I stared back at her, trying to silently convey the message for her to move out of the way.

The nurse didn't budge, eventually finding her voice.

"Um, excuse me miss, I've been waiting for you to notice me for a couple of minutes now… Well anyway, Yamanaka-san is here to visit you."

Ugh.

"Thanks for telling me, I'll be out in a couple of minutes."

The nurse nodded; expression unchanging.

"Are you- alright?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

She frantically shook her head.

"It's-it's nothing. I'll be outside."

She exited the room, silently shutting the door behind her with a click.

I let the room fill with silence for a moment, taking in my surroundings.

As quickly as I could, I hobbled over to the single window in the room, unlatching the lock. Luckily I was on the first floor, meaning I could get away without doing some second or third story jumping out of windows.

The view was of the backside of the hospital, a little gardened in sight and a nice escape view around the corner. I refused to be subjugated to Inoichi's mind games.

I was healed enough. It was time for me to get out of here!

Readily, I swung one leg over the window, careful to not knock my cast into it too loudly. Just as I was about to bring my other leg over, I heard the click of the door.

"Kato-san, I'm-"

There was a dead silence.

Recognizing that voice, I nervously turned my head around.

"Oh, um, Inoichi-san, I was just doing some new leg stretches. Care to join me?"

He looked like someone had just told him that his puppy died, and that I was the culprit.

"Kato-san, why don't we start our appointment now?"

This was quickly spiraling downhill.

"I would, but I'm burning so many calories right now that I don't feel like I can just stop."

Surprisingly, instead of asking what a calorie was, or why I was burning them, he came over to me, resting his hand on my shoulder.

I had never seen him look so compassionate and fatherly before.

"Were going to get through this together, okay? I'm here to help you."

I stared at him in absolute horror.

I wasn't trying to run away from my problems, I was running away from you!

* * *

AN: I got stuck writing this chapter for some reason, but I eventually figured it out. It's sometimes difficult to try and decide when to introduce which character, but I think I'm going to just wait for the right moment first.


	22. Chapter 21

"Well, what do _you_ think?

"That Konoha is potentially violating animal rights by taking creatures out of their natural habitats and keeping them in an enclosed space to fight one another?"

"That's not what meant."

"That geneticists should be more creative with their hybrid combinations?"

There was a moment of silence between us.

"What do you mean by that?"

"In my wanderings I found out that there are certain countries where they are greatly developed in their understanding of sciences. Genetics deals with the study of heredity and genes."

"You seem to have acquired quite allot of knowledge."

"Ah, really? I guess I have…"

Now that I thought about it, I've had more schooling than practically everyone in this world just with my uncompleted high school education. The majority of them graduated at age twelve if not younger; and most of the things they learned had to do with fighting.

Wow, that means in comparison I know really advanced stuff. Huh.

Inoichi lightly set down the clipboard he was using on top of my hospital room beside table. He hunched over in his chair, hands crossed over one another. The expression on his face looked a bit grim.

"This is our third session together; however we don't seem to be making much progress."

I remained sitting up in my bed, trying not to make much of a facial expression.

Inochi let out a long sigh.

"As much as I may want to, I can't force someone to get help if they don't want it. Even if it's a request from the Hokage."

The Hokage?

"However, if you ever change you your mind though, feel free to come to me with anything you might be dealing with."

He stood up from his seat, grabbing his belongings.

"Alright, Mako-san?"

"…O-Okay. Thank you for everything then."

He nodded towards me as he pulled open the door.

"Until next time."

And with that, he left the room, pulling the door closed silently behind him.

…

"**Congratulations!" **

"Thanks Sakura-san, but you really didn't have to do all this for me."

"Nonsense. Besides, it's always great to have an excuse to go out to eat."

Chouji grunted in agreement as he chewed on another piece of meat.

A large group of us were currently squeezed into a circle booth; everyone happily eating and grilling the meat in front of them. Almost everyone from the rookie eleven were here, minus Naruto and Neji.

Tenten skillfully swiped a piece of meat out of Choji's grasp while Shikamaru muttered something to himself, sinking deeper into his seat. While Ino spent her time scolding her two team mates, Sakura looked quite pleased with herself for throwing this whole thing together.

Next she turned to me, an air of excitement around her.

"We can finally get on with proper introductions!"

She pointed a Kiba who was sitting at the edge of one of the booths.

"You can start and we can go in a circle from there."

"Why me…"

He looked a little annoyed, but with a quick sigh and the prodding of Akamaru, he gave me a bright smile.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and this little guy here is Akamaru. Nice meet you."

Akamaru barked happily.

"I'm not sure if you could really call him little…"

Kiba suddenly had a deadpan expression.

"Wha do ya mean?"

"He's pretty large compared to some dog breeds out there."

"Breeds?"

So this world doesn't have breeds. Just dogs. You know, I don't really feel like explaining this.

"It's a thing."

Kiba just kind of stared at me for a moment before shrugging off my reply.

Next in line was Shino who made his intro as quick and simple as possible.

"Aburame Shino."

No one objected to this, and Hinata nervously began her turn.

"H-Hello again M-Mako-san. I am glad that you're alright."

"I should be fine now as long as I don't decide to spontaneously run a marathon or something like that."

"T-That's good then."

Lee called over something about marathons being part of youth, then was promptly smacked on the head by Sakura.

Shikamaru lazy sat up, motioning towards Ino and Choji.

"Nara Shikamaru. Part of Team with these two. Welcome to the village."

He then slunk down in his seat, elbowing the distracted Choji in the side to get his attention away from the food.

"What is it Shikamaru? I'm eating right now."

Shikamaru motioned towards me.

"Oh right."

He quickly pulled another piece of meat off of the grill and put it in his mouth.

"Awdkawmigi Ckhoghji."

Quickly, he swallowed his food.

"Akimichi Choji. It's very nice to meet you Kato-san."

"You can just call me Mako. Kato just sounds weird to me."

Actually both of those names do, but for some reason I wasn't too eager to tell them my actual one. Maybe it had just become habit at this point.

"Oh, ok."

Choji's eyes maneuvered over to empty grill, then the piece of untouched beef on my plate.

"Are you going to eat that?"

He made sure to point directly at it.

"…Yes."

Everyone stared at me somberly in dead silence, a twitch starting to form on Chouji's face.

"Uh, you can have half?"

He seemed pleased with that offer, and the others took a collective sigh of relief. I split it with my chopsticks; setting the other piece on top of his plate.

Taking no chances, I immediately scarfed mine down, taking a sip of green tea to wash it down.

Ino leaped into the empty silence, proudly taking over the moment for herself.

"Well, it's my turn now, though you already know who I am Mako-chan~! I'm a proud kunoichi of the Yamanaka clan!"

Minus Ino, I wasn't too fond of them at this point.

Moving right along, Tenten gave a slight bow, looking cheerful as usual.

"I'm Tenten. It's very nice to meet you."

"You too."

There's something I've always wondered. Does Tenten have a last name? Does she even have much of a back-story in the first place? According to the wiki page I read a while ago, apparently not. Either way, might as well ask.

"Tenten-san, do you have a last name you would like to be called by?"

For a split second, her expression turned to that of pure rage. I must have been the only one who noticed besides maybe Shikamaru though; as she was instantly back to smiling the next.

"Ah, I don't actually have one."

Either Tenten _really _doesn't like that fact, or she's lying to me.

"Lee, why don't you go now?"

"OF COURSE! Right away!"

He instantly struck a dramatic pose, standing up from his seat with one foot propped up on the table. I had to blink a couple times to make sure the sparkles around him weren't real.

"I am the ever youthful Rock Lee! I am pleased to make you acquaintance Kato-san!"

"You too, though technically all of us here are youthful. "

We're all only teenagers' right? Why wouldn't we be?

"Why yes of course! Though my teacher is especially so!"

There were a few groans around the table as Lee descended into worshipping mode. A waiter came and dropped off the bill, causing a few people to get up and begin to get up a leave. I couldn't let it end like this though. I still wanted solid information. I was best to confirm that I was in Shippuden once and for all.

"So, is this everyone from your friend group then?"

Kiba was to first to shake his head.

"Naruto and Neji aren't around right now."

Ok, this was going well so far.

"Oh, are they off doing missions and stuff then?"

Lee jumped into the conversation.

"My eternal rival is currently training! I will be heading there soon myself!"

"I see. And Naruto? I've heard Sakura say he's her teammate."

Kiba shrugged.

"He's been gone from the village off training for a long time now."

C-Care to repeat that?

Sakura shot him a nasty glare.

"What? I really doubt she's some sort of spy. There's just no way."

"Well I guess so… but you shouldn't go around telling people that. Who knows who could overhear?"

Find details. Find details.

"So, how long has he been gone then? It must be weird without him around."

Sakura's face softened, her eyes drifting off into space.

"In a few months, it'll be two years. I kind of wonder how much he's changed since then."

How many is a few!?

Kiba nodded.

"I guess I wouldn't mind seeing that moron again."

"N-Naruto-kun…"

"We'll have to have a youthful spar with one another!"

If there's no Naruto, then that means that there's no Jiraiya. And if there's no Jiraiya, then that means I can't wake up.

ADHGJCHEHTYKVJHGVBVJHCVJB

"H-Hey Sakura-san, can I ask you a favor?"

"Hmm? Sure, just tell me what it is."

"Can I take you up on that offer to cut my hair?"

"Of course!"

Time to kick up my feet and make myself comfortable. I have a lot of time to kill.

* * *

AN: This week really didn't like me. D: I got swamped with work, so this took longer to write than I wanted.

Now the fun begins! :D


	23. Chapter 22

Wow, so that's the kanji for water. How fascinating.

I flipped the page.

Oh, and that's the one for person. So much learning its blowing my mind.

I brushed some dangling stands of hair out of eyes; tucking them behind my ear. My head felt so much lighter now. I never realized how much hair weighed.

It was now cut above my shoulders; messy bangs that were shorter in some parts, and longer in others. Sakura and Ino insisted that it looked fine, so I decided to just take their word for it.

For the last week in order to not die from boredom, I had started moving full speed ahead on my apartment decoration.

The walls of my bedroom were now a nice lilac color, and I had found a slightly beaten up bed side table that one of my neighbors decided to discard. One coat of white paint later, and it looked good as new. The newly purchased Ivory colored curtains and bedspread really gave the whole room a classic look.

I'd have to get some wall art and throw pillows next time I got my allowance.

Currently I was sitting on one of the colorful cushions in front my kitchen table. An old woman a few doors down had seen me walking about; and when I told her about my predicament, she graciously gave me some old things she had lying around.

After wards, she invited me to her apartment for tea and began to tell me all about her family. She told me all about her daughter that lived in the village, and all about how her grandson was currently doing at the academy.

Apparently it was his dream to be a ninja, but it worried her to no end. As she put it, no one really understood what it was like to be a ninja like a civilian. All they could do is watch and observe. And when you observe, you notice things. How people act, how people change.

I sat quietly and listened, nodding at a statement here and there.

Half of me wanted to completely throw this information out the window because of the lack of caring for fictional ninja, but at the same time it felt like something deep and important.

Well, I got free stuff out of the experience.

I kind hoped that Naruto would show up any day now, but that didn't seem like it going to happen any time soon. I don't think an exact amount of time was ever stated in the manga. It was about two years, but that's all I knew for sure.

It was probably for the best that I went out and walked around a bit more.

Setting my books down and slipping in a scrap of paper as a book mark; I headed for the door, slipping my shoes on as I went.

These library books must be ridiculously overdue by now. I'll bring them back soon.

If I remember.

Probably.

…

The first place I headed to was the construction depot. It was a wide open area located in one of the back corners of the village. There were piles of different length boards all around, a several buildings on sight coupled together.

I ended up deciding to explore all of the corners of the village I hadn't been to before, and one day I ended up here. It was interesting to stand around and observe the work process; plus I didn't really have anything else to do.

I struck up a conversation with a worker who saw me wandering around one day. After chatting for a bit, our conversation took a turn to architecture. He said that he was surprised someone like me was so interested in it.

Is that a compliment…?

The worker then called over his boss; a weathered older man whose white was hair cut short, and was dressed in simple attire.

Apparently he did most of the design work in the village along with his youngest son; a thin and anxious looking guy, with short brown hair and who must had been in his late twenties or early thirties.

The old man struck up an offer. I was free to stick around and observe as long as I helped out while I was here.

Well, after accepting the deal I finally built up some muscle. Not much for only coming around a for only a week , and then struggling to lift only one plank, but I could now do _three_ pushups without collapsing!

At the moment though I was assisting the son, whose name was Takata Yukio. Today though, instead of being is usual awkwardly cheery self, he was sitting slumped over on of a crate inside one of the warehouses.

"Um, Yukio-san, we still need to finish inventory check."

"R-Right. Just give me a moment."

He buried his face in his hands.

"This job sometimes is just so…"

"Did something go wrong?"

"Well, no. Things are the same as always, but that's the problem."

"Why would that be?"

Yukio took a deep breath.

"Our business tends to always be in the red. New construction at the moment really isn't in demand. At this rate, were going to go out of business. My father though insists we'll be fine, however anyone could see that's not really the case."

Wait. Wasn't there some giant village-wide destruction thing that happens? I don't know when or why, but things go boom.

I rested my hand on his shoulder.

"Trust me, you'll be fine. It might not happen for a while, but eventually you'll have more money than you've ever had before in your life. You could fill a lake with it and swim around in it that you'll have so much."

He looked up at me teary eyed.

"T-Thank you Mako-kun for trying to cheer me up. I wish it was really just that easy."

Oh, it will be.

Yuko stood up, taking a deep breath.

"We better get back to work then."

"Alright! Just tell me what to do."

"I need you to find the crate labeled-oh right. I got to tell you this before I forget."

"Hmm?"

"That blue haired fellow named Daichi. I found out from one of my buddies that he's back in the village for a while. It seems the reason you couldn't find him for so long was because he was gone on a mission."

"Thank you so much for finding that out for me!"

He chuckled.

"It's the least I could do for my new apprentice."

"Apprentice? I thought that _you_ were the apprentice."

"Ok fine. Apprentice to the apprentice. How does that sound?"

"Unofficial."

He laughed.

"True. I guess you're more like the chore girl for this place."

"…I'm learning valuable life skills?"

"Correct! Not everyone can become a ninja when their young, but that doesn't mean they have nothing else to live for. There are plenty of other great things to learn!"

Yeah… If everyone here was a ninja, the economy would quickly collapse.

"So… Did you ever go to the academy?"

"I did, and I failed out!"

This inspired another laugh that seemed kind of bitter.

"Clan brats are always the cruelest. It's a hard world for kids from civilian families."

"Oh. Were you… bullied then?"

"Huh?"

Yukio looked a little surprised by the comment.

"No. I was just horrible at it. Besides, I didn't have to go off in fight in war like some of the people around my age. In a way, it was almost fate."

"What do you mean by fate?"

"Well, I got a chance to really figure out what I liked, and I realized there was more to life than just fighting."

Whoa there. Let's not get too crazy now. Did you forget what world we're currently in?

"That's good then. I kind of wouldn't mind learning a couple of things myself though."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, is that why you're trying to get in contact with that ninja person?"

"Er, sort of. I also need to thank him."

"Thank him?"

"He helped me out recently, so I wanted to thank him in person."

Yukio nodded.

"That makes sense."

He took a moment to do a few quick stretches.

"That was enough break time for a whole month! Back to work!"

"Aye aye Captain!"

"You still haven't explained to me what that phrase means."

"Ah, pirates versus ninjas. The eternal struggle."

"…I think I may just stop asking."

* * *

AN: Another kind of laid back chapter. I for some reason had Kay going out and helping at a construction company. I don't know why, but it just kind of happened.


	24. Chapter 23

"Daichi! I finally-"

I took a second to catch my breath.

"-found you!"

"Congrats."

He was standing in one of the training grounds throwing kunai toward a target with more energy than probably need. His back was turned to me; however I could tell by his body language that he was very tense.

"I have a favor to ask."

"I'll pass."

"Pass?"

I felt a little dumbstruck by the quick answer. He had never refused anything I asked of before. I always assumed that was because of his mission, but still. I hadn't even gotten the chance to tell him what it was yet.

"You can still hear right? I said no, and I'm pretty busy right now. I don't need any unnecessary distractions."

His tone was different than normal. Sure he would constantly treat me like a nuisance and belittle me at every chance he got, but none of it was done with true malice. This though, this was different. Daichi sounded legitimately angry.

Did something happen since I saw him last?

"Are you-"

"_Stop."_

"I Just-"

"**Go."**

I clamped my mouth shut and Daichi continued to do more target practice. I quickly began to notice though how deeply the kunai were imbedded into the target. It was stuck in all the way up to the handle.

It didn't look like Daichi was going the budge anytime so. Provoking him in this state wouldn't be a good idea either. I doubted he would purposely hurt me, but if he momentarily forgot I wasn't a ninja… it would not end well.

Well, if I was going to get shut out like this, I might as well extend some common courtesy.

"Daichi-san!"

"What did I ju-"

"Thank you."

His body froze in mid-throw.

"Thank you alright?! I wanted to at least thank you for everything that you did for me. Without you saving me back then, who knows what would have happened."

Well, I had a pretty good guess, but he didn't need to know that.

Daichi tensed up more than what I thought was possible.

"…It wasn't enough."

"I'm here talking to you aren't I?"

He shook his head.

"That's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"I failed my mission."

Ok. Honestly wasn't expecting that answer. I guess he did hand me off when he was supposed to observing me, but if it was really that big of a deal then why did he hand me off to Sakura in the first place?

"It can't be that big of a deal right? I mean, if you explain the situation I'm sure it'll be fine."

Unable to contain himself, Daichi spun around to face me; his teeth grinding together with a face full of several mixed emotions.

"Do you know why I was with you all of the time?

"To make sure I wasn't an enemy right?"

"**It was to **_**protect **_**you!"**

Oh.

"W-Why?"

Who or what would be after me? Was someone just overprotective of me or something?

He shrugged, cooling down a bit.

"It's my job."

"That's not what I meant. Why would there be a mission like that in the first place?"

"That I want to ask you."

"Me?"

"You don't seem to be from any important clans, nor do you have any known association with any important figures. The file on you we were given on you was basically blank besides the bare minim."

There was a long pause as he stared me straight in the eyes.

"What makes you so special?"

That was something I'd wanted to know for a long time now.

"I…I don't know. "

Daichi walked over to the target, easily pulling out the lodged kunai and putting them back in his pack.

"That's what I thought."

There was nothing for me to respond with. My mind blanked on me as I watched Daichi slowly walk away.

Just as he was about to leave the area, the reason for me visiting in the first place came back to me.

"**Wait!"**

He continued walking without pause.

"**Please train me!"**

Daichi stopped, frozen in his current spot.

I waited for a moment to see his reaction.

"**Why…? You now know that you were under constant protection, and even now someone new has taken that place though they don't seem to have shown themselves to you."**

Daichi turned around, walking back towards me. He now looked more annoyed than anything.

"Well that didn't stop me from getting mauled."

The look on his face morphed into one of a shame… and pity? Something I never thought I would live to see.

That was really a low blow; though I just couldn't stop myself. The whole situation was my own fault really, though it would be easy to dish out blame. I doubt Daichi thought I would be attacked in the _village _of all places under such stupid circumstances.

"You have a point."

"Great! Then you'll train me right?"

Daichi smirked like usual, washing away all of the tension we had built up earlier.

"Sorry, it's my policy to not work with children or animals."

"I'm seventeen!"

"I thought you were eighteen."

"Whatever! Please just train me."

He paused for a moment in thought, obviously sorting through a couple things in his head.

"…Fine."

Wait what?! I was almost sure I would have to go track down my number two most likely candidate, Gai.

"Really!?"

He sighed, his smirk growing larger.

"Don't get too excited now. I'm not the one who's going to be teaching you."

"You must really love that policy of yours."

"I guess you could say it's my nindo."

"Your Nintendo?"

Do they exist in this world too now?

"My what? No, it means my ninja way."

Oh yeah, didn't Naruto go on and on about that every other battle he had?

"Anyway, since that guy owes me a favor, and I usually know where he is this time of day, I might as well take you to him."

"Sweet. Thanks!"

"Just…"

He turned his face away from me, trying to hide an almost caring look.

"Be the opposite of your usual self."

Are these really your words of wisdom?!

"Meaning?"

"Think before you act."

"Hey! I (almost) always do that!"

"Then… I really don't know how to help you."

…

"Please teach me to be Jesus!"

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that."

"Please teach me how to walk on water!"

Kakashi lazily leaned back against a tree, eyes never straying from the pages of the orange book he was holding.

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself. Why don't we take it a couple of steps back?"

I eagerly nodded.

"Tell me what you know about chakra."

"Um, you combine two different types of energy to make it, and there is a special body system that it flows though."

Hmm… what else did I remember from Narutopedia?

"There are different types of chakra that do… stuff?"

Uh…

"Yeah. That's pretty much what I know off the top of my head."

During all this Kakashi didn't bother to look up even once.

"Well, you seem to know some general information. Can you perform any jutsu?"

"Um, no. However, I can do this!"

It took me a good couple of seconds, but I was able to do the trick of making my hand glow blue with chakra. I had been practicing in my free time, and I was slowly but surely getting better at it.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Is it…bad?"

"If you don't even understand what you currently doing, then this is going to be a long process."

Kakashi was a bit different than what I remembered from the manga. He was still as laid back as ever, but he seemed to have lost his more playful side. That probably had to do with the fact that he just got stuck training a random civilian. Well, I guess I wasn't a _completely_ random person, but it still made my point.

"I suggest going to the library and reading up a bit before coming back here. We can start then."

Why does everything come down to reading!? Is it really that valuable of a life skill?

Don't get me wrong, I actually love reading. When I get time in between classes I like to pull out a book and read a couple pages here and there. I guess I really just took it all for granted up to this point.

My eyes wandered to the ground as I started to quietly grumble to myself.

"Well, it's not like I can just go to the academy…"

"Oh? Would you like to?"

I jerked my head up, making eye contact with a now smiling Kakashi.

That smile though… He was up to something.

"I'm a little old for that don't you think?"

"Oh it's no problem! I know one of the teachers there who would gladly take you in."

I swear there was a gleam in his eyes when he said those words.

"Well, then I guess so if it's not a problem."

"Great!"

Kakashi immediately closed his book shut.

"Go to the academy at 7:45 tomorrow morning. I'll have him come and find you."

And with a quick hand sign and another smile, Kakashi vanished; only leaves left in his place.

* * *

AN: This is about the fourth or fifth rewrite of this chapter. :/ I just couldn't decide where I wanted to go with the story, so I kept rolling around a couple ideas in my head while editing here and there.

I'm not sure if the pacing was a good as I wanted it to be, but I think I got in everything I wanted to.


	25. Chapter 24

"Everyone, I would like to introduce Kato Mako-san. She will be joining our class for a while."

I awkwardly gave a slight bow from where I was standing in front of the room.

"Nice to meet you."

A multitude of eyes stared back, some looking more confused than others. They were all about eight or nine years old, an age I was all too familiar with.

On my dad's side I have a large extended family. My cousin's ages range from elementary schoolers to college students. And when someone needs a babysitter, they all decide to call me. It used to be my sister they relied on, but once she left for college I suddenly became the go to person.

I was used to this age range, but it didn't make the situation less humiliating; especially with lots of not-so-quiet whispering going on around me. I guess it could be worse though.

"Why is she here?"

"She's so old."

"How many times did she fail to still be going to the academy?"

"Isn't that the weird lady who ran through town?"

"She broke into my Dad's restaurant! "

"My Mom's store too!"

Iruka walked in front of me, waving his arms to command attention.

"Everyone quiet down. We should give our new classmate a warm welcome."

I turned to Iruka and began to speak in a low voice.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to be here? I'm not exactly…"

He gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I also had my concerns, but after speaking with some of the higher ups this was all approved."

I guess the Hokage and the leaders really did trust me more than I thought.

I let out a little laugh.

"I'm sort of surprised. I honestly thought that I was going to be with put with the youngest age group. I don't really have much knowledge about this sort thing you see."

"I asked about that myself, but the best balance we thought was this setup. If you need any extra help, just find me and be happy to catch you up on anything you've missed."

"Won't you be teaching this class?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a nervous laugh.

"I will be coming here and teaching a specific topic to this class, but each grade has a teacher that teaches the majority of the subjects."

Hmm. That was similar to how the Japanese school system worked. Students for most classes would stay I their classrooms while teachers come and went.

I quickly nodded.

"Ah, that makes sense. Who will be my teacher then?"

Iruka looked away, suddenly very nervous at the question.

"I-I'm sure she'll want to introduce herself. She just started teaching this year, and I guess you could say that she's… unconventional. She was chosen by the Hokage herself though. "

"That's no problem then. I'll just explain the situation when she gets here."

"She's been told there is a new student, but it would be for the best if you filled her in on your particular skills."

The class was beginning to get a bit restless.

"Alright class! Take your seats! Mako-san, your spot is over there."

He pointed to an empty seat in the back right-hand corner.

I climbed up the steps and walked over to my seat as the kids around me stared.

A couple of girls sitting together started to giggle as they watched me go by.

"What ugly clothes."

One girl with blond hair snickered.

Another with dark blue hair laughed.

I couldn't help but look down at what I was wearing. In preparation of my first day of ninja school I went out and bought myself some ninja-y attire. I bought a bright blue t-shirt, dark grey short, black ninja sandals, and just for a little pizzazz fishnet leggings.

Looking over at the girls, they all seemed to be wearing some sort of dress-skirt thing in shades of pink and purple. At least mine was easier to move in.

Being bullied by ten year olds was almost laughable. I had to hold myself back from letting my babysitter instincts from coming out. Instead I said something completely over their head, or more accurately out of their world.

"I'm just expressing my first amendments rights to dress how I want, same as you guys."

They stared back at me blankly, eventually turning away to talk among themselves again. I kept walking until I reached my destination, sitting down on the bench next to a boy with dark brown hair, brown eyes, a green t-shirt, and khaki pants.

Unlike the other kids, he didn't even to acknowledge my presence and kept his face stuffed in some sort of text book.

Iruka began the class by going over some things concerning international politics and government in the ninja world. It was all really interesting and I began to take notes in English inside a notebook I brought with me.

It was strange. Though I was technically speaking Japanese, it was all translated inside my head to English. I could easily take notes because of this, but it was kind of mind boggling to think about.

The teacher began to speak a bit about the inner workings of Konoha, and one statement he said really made me wonder something.

I raised my hand.

"Yes Mako-san?"

I put my arm down.

"So in this government system, basically normal people have no power. It's the ninja who decide how their lives are run without their consent."

"Civilians of Konoha do have input within the council though. They select an individual to represent themselves."

"I get that, but how are they selected? Is it selected democratically in an election?"

"I believe the current representative is an influential business man. They tend to be chosen by the Hokage."

"I don't think he really represents the interests of the common people then. The vast majority of them aren't rolling in cash. This is beginning to seem life soft authoritarianism. Does the Hokage select the other council members as well? If so it only proves my point."

"Some are elders and others are the head of clans. We also have the advisors under the Hokage."

"So would you say that it's traditional legitimacy then?"

Iruka let out a long sight.

"Mako-san, I'm sorry but I don't really understand some of the things you're saying. Let's get back to the lesson alright?"

"O-Oh, ok."

I slunk down into my seat feeling slightly dejected. It looked like my attempts to understand the government system fully would have to wait for another day.

It took a while for me notice, but the kids around me minus my table partner were staring at me in awe.

"She knows things even Iruka-sensei doesn't!"

"Maybe she's not as dumb after all."

Oh yeah. Public high school education in the works.

"Settle down, settle down. I hope you're all paying attention. This is going to be on the test."

There was a loud collective groan.

…

Iruka closed his textbook, packing up his belongs into a bag he had with him.

The class stood up and collectedly bowed, similarly to how we did at the beginning of every Japanese class.

"**Thank you very much!"**

He nodded and smiled back.

"Test Tuesday everyone! Remember to study!"

And with that he exited the room, pulling the door quietly behind them.

Suddenly, instead of getting up and talking like I expected them to do in between classes, everyone went dead silent; pulling out their books and staring straight ahead, while sitting up in their seats.

It was… really odd.

The kid next to me though was still reading whatever it was and hadn't bothered to move an inch. I debated whether or not to alert him, but judging by the fact he was nonchalantly turning to the next page in his book, he really didn't seem to care.

I kicked back in my seat, leaning against the wall behind me.

Whatever what was going on couldn't really be that big of a deal. Plus I still had time before the teacher arrived.

I found myself closing my eyes and nodding off a bit. Sleep was just so boring these days. The less of it I got the more of others things I could do.

_SLAM_

I was instantly jerked awake by the sudden noise.

Entering the room was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties. She had soft features, long dark purple hair that was tied into a loose pony tail, and grey eyes. A headband was tied around her left arm, and her current outfit was… quite revealing.

She was wearing a very low-cut black long sleeve shirt with red spirals on both sides, a tan skirt with long slits on the sides and black _short_ shorts underneath.

Instead of simply walking behind the desk like a normal human being, she jumped on top of it and took a seat; making sure to cross her legs.

She scanned the room, chugging a bottle of sake she had with her.

"You."

She made eye contact with me.

"You the new student?"

"Y-yeah."

She took another swig.

"You can start calling me sensei then. I'm Mitarashi Masuyo. You might have met my adorable younger sister Anko before."

A-Adorable…? Not exactly the word I would have used…

"I guess I might as well get you started then. Class, what is our motto?"

Almost robotically they all replied.

"**Don't fail."**

"Good. If you can just do that we'll have no problems."

I nodded, suddenly questioning my choice to come here.

"Now that that's out of the way…"

She pointed to some poor kid with black hair in the front row.

"Go get me a refill."

She chucked the sake container at the kid's head.

"If you're not back in ten minutes, besides being pathetic, you'll have to do an extra hundred pushups. _Understand_?"

The boy frantically nodded, running out of the room at what must have been a record speed.

Masuyo let out a sigh.

"Scenario time kids. You're on an escort mission and you're attacked by a group of bandits. You are on a four man team in a wooded area far away from the nearest town. What do you do?"

The blond haired girl from before raised her hand.

"Rika-san."

"Um, use taijutsu and take them down yourself."

"Not even close. Add five laps today. Next?"

A boy who no doubt by his looks must have been a hyuuga raised his hand next.

"Isao-kun."

"I would use the gentle fist style and incapacitate them before they could make any moves."

"God no. And with your taijutsu skill? Add fifty reps to whatever is your usual."

Isao sat down, looking too proud to make any big reaction.

"Who wants a turn?"

The class went silent, many trying to avoid eye contact with the teacher.

"I know, how about my cute little nephew answer this time?"

To my surprise the boy next to me spoke, pulling a Kakashi and not looking up from his book.

"Just go die auntie."

"Incorrect answer. Fifty more sit-ups."

He just shrugged, returning to reading like before.

"Anyone else?"

Heck with it. Since this is the Naruto world, the answer should be obvious.

I raised my hand.

"Newbie."

"Work together with your team to take them down."

"Correct, ten minutes of extra break time today."

A few of the kids looked annoyed with me, especially the blond girl Rika.

"Can anyone tell me why she's right? Double reward for a correct answer."

Several hands instantly shot up.

"Yes, Takeo-kun?"

"You can make up for each other's weak points and get stuff done faster."

"Good enough. Twenty minutes."

The teacher leaped off the desk and picked up a piece of chalk from the chalkboard. She wrote out a very complicated kanji which I copied down in my notebook.

"For those of you who actually do their work in this class and go on to becoming ninja, without teamwork you can and _will_ die. You can train your little hearts out and become the strongest, but there's always things you can't do alone, or you would be stupid to do alone."

I could see a couple of the kinds roll their eyes, obviously not taking it very seriously.

"Oh, you don't believe me huh? I guess then it's a good thing we're doing sparing next."

There was suddenly a heavy air of dread.

"What's our motto for training, class?"

"**If you're not dying then you're not trying."**

She brushed away a nonexistent tear.

"I've taught you all so well."

* * *

AN: I had a hard time deciding what to do with chapter, but in the end I came out with a new character. Anko will probably show up at some time to visit.

Thank you everyone for all of the reviews and favorites! I really appreciate it.


	26. Chapter 25

The whole class had gathered together in the side yard of the school. The area was fenced in, a couple targets off to one side.

All of my classmates lined up in front of fence, looking like they all had resigned their fates. I joined them, standing at one of the ends and towering over in height.

Masuyo soon followed, lazily walking up in front of the group. The kid she had sent out earlier was behind her, a refilled container of Sake in hand. She leisurely took it from him, letting herself have a long drink.

She wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, staring down the group in front of her.

"Hmmm. How should we do this today?"

Every held their breath.

She closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly pointing to two random students out of the line.

"You and you. Front and center."

A girl with brown hair was called up who was shaking nervously; and also the hyuuga from before. He looked quite allot like Neji now that I thought about it, but his hair was instead cut very short.

Masuyo stood in thought for a moment, most likely to give them time to sweat.

"Spar against each other using your feet only."

She next blindly pointed to another pair in the crowd.

"You two are sparing also. One of you needs to put on a blindfold. I don't care how you decide."

After that she was on a roll, pairing up her students to spar in whatever conditions she could think of off the top of her head.

Some of them were kind of cruel, like making them maintain hands stands while fighting, or like she simply told her nephew and some Inuzuka kid, "Walk backwards the whole time."

The weirdest thing though, was that they all just accepted it and did it without question. Then again, judging by what I had seen so far, I was pretty sure that questioning her authority would be worse.

As the crowd thinned out though, I suddenly found myself standing alone. I thought for a moment that it was because of uneven numbers, but sure enough there was a group of three fighting each other while trying to stay balanced on top of the fence.

Well…

No need to over think it right? It would only make sense I wasn't fighting anyone. It was my first day! No one would expect me to know taijutsu. I was probably going to be taught the basics while they were all busy. Masuyo was in fact even approaching at the moment.

"So what's your name new student of mine?"

"Kato Mako."

"Kato huh?"

She took a moment to muse, a look of perplexion crossing her face.

"That's a name I haven't heard in a _long _time."

Wait, so did that mean she knew people that were apparently related to me then!? Did Mako actually have a family somewhere?

"Oh really, where?"

"It's a long boring story. Nothing too exciting."

Dodging the question. Why couldn't people just tell me things straight out?! It would save me so much trouble…

"Oh, okay."

I'll save more information gathering for when I get myself into her good graces.

"Now,"

Masuyo stared at me intently, putting the sake bottle inside her pack.

"Fight me."

What?!

I stared back blankly.

"A-Are you serious…?"

"How else will learn your abilities?"

I don't know. Ask me maybe?!

I didn't make any movements; only standing in place with what I could only assume to be a dumbfounded expression.

"Hurry up. I don't have all day, though I can make sure you spend all day training here."

Uh…

I slowly raised my firsts, making sure I had my thumbs tucked under correctly. Honestly, basically all I remembered from my kung fu classes was how to punch and kick without breaking my finger and toes, and how to block. And with my sucky amount of strength, nothing I did could really do any damage.

Masuyo watched me impatiently, tapping her foot on the ground.

Before I ran off and charged face first into my undoubted demise, it was probably a good idea to analyze the situation.

Masuyo Mitarashi. Judging from her demeanor, it was probably safe to assume she was a Jonin.

Why?

Because the only people who can get away with this kind of crap are Jonin and above and geniuses. In the Naruto world, as long as you had a high IQ or were crazy strong people tended to ignore your 'personality quirks'.

She only had the basic ninja gear on her, so it didn't look like she specialized in any specific weapon. This was a spar though, not a battle; so it's not like she would be carry it around with her while 'teaching'. It was a good idea so assume her fighting style was similar to Anko; focusing on taijutsu and aim.

In that case, fighting her like this I was really screwed.

I suddenly relaxed my posture, unclenching my firsts and raising my hand.

"I surrender."

Masuyo did not look amused.

"You can't do that."

Well according to the logic of Shikamaru in the Chunin exams, I was totally justified.

"There's no way I can hold my own against you. Plus I have pretty much no fighting skills."

I could see her eye twitching, a couple of groups of students stopping their spars to gape and stare at the scenario.

"Giving up so soon? That's quite pathetic."

Yeah, she was right.

I just shrugged, walking closer up to Masuyo.

"No its not. My life something for preserving. Why risk it doing something meaningless like this?"

The teacher stood in place, glaring and clenching her hands until her knuckled turned white. She looked like she was on the verge of snapping. I guess she wasn't used to people going against her.

I continued walking; now passing her on her right side.

Just as she was about to speak again, I made my move.

I spun myself around, kicking out my leg and aiming for one of the few weak spots I could think of; the back of the knee.

My hit almost connected, but even with Masuyo ticked off, she was focused enough to counter me without breaking a sweat.

She turned, and in a lightning fast motion punched me in the stomach, sending my body to fly through the air. I barely had time to register the pain before my body connected with a nearby tree.

Oof.

I tried to get up, the pain convincing me otherwise. It looked like my quickly thrown together plan had sort of kind of not really worked.

I mean at least I tried right?

This wasn't something I could have just run away from. I really want to learn ninja magic, and I doubted they'd let me back in if I suddenly dashed off on my first day.

A couple of kids came over to gawk, blocking my view of the teacher.

"The tree cracked!"

"She should have just fought sensei normally like we had to."

"Hey, are you dead yet?"

I quickly told them that in fact, I was still breathing.

"**Out of the way! Didn't I assign you all work to do?"**

The sea of students quickly parted revealing Masuyo in their wake.

"Interesting."

She was smiling at me.

SMILING.

Every instinct in my body told me to flee, but there was no place I could go now. I was trapped. I remained quiet, silently praying for my death to be as painless as possible.

"I think I'm starting to understand what kind of ninja you'll end up being."

I-I'm so very sorry!

"Give me one-hundred laps around the field and then we'll start talking about your taijutsu training."

Eh?

Was that a punishment or a reward…?

Masuyo turned away, calmly walking back to her original spot, pulling out a now empty sake container. She called on another random student to fetch her refill, throwing it into their faces like before.

I just remained sitting, trying to process the situation at hand.

Are all academy teachers secretly like this?

* * *

AN: I actually don't have much to say about this chapter. ^^; On to the next!


	27. Chapter 26

"You did _what_?!"

I had my face pressed down against the cool counter top.

"I ran a hundred laps around the practice field."

Sakura slammed her chopsticks down next to her bowl of ramen.

"B-But why? Even though you've been out of the hospital for a while, you shouldn't be putting extra strain on your body!"

Oh right. That was still a thing.

I gave a little shrug, trying not to hurt my sore muscles in the process.

"My teacher at the academy had me do it for training."

And I meant training in a very lose sense.

I saw out of the corner of my eyes that Sakura looked shocked, her mouth slightly hanging open.

"I can't believe Iruka-sensei would do something like that, let alone to a new student!"

"Oh, no."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"Iruka-sensei isn't my main teacher."

"He isn't?"

I could tell that Sakura felt relieved, though she was still very agitated.

"Yeah, it's a person named Mitarashi Masuyo. She just started teaching at the academy."

Sakura frowned slightly.

"Sorry, but I don't think I've met her. If she worked at the hospital or was a medical ninja, I'm sure I would have seen her; or in the very least heard of her though."

"Really? She's Mitarashi Anko's sister."

She paused for a moment, eye brows furrowing.

"I think Mitarashi-san was the proctor of the Chunin exams some time ago, but I never really spoke to her then or afterwards."

That statement really shocked me. I pulled myself up straight from slouched position, and turned to stare at Sakura.

"But Sakura isn't your teacher Kakashi-san dating Anko-san?"

Sakura stared at me blankly for a while until the words finnaly sank in.

"_**H-Huh?!"**_

She immediately got up from the stool she was sitting on, slamming her hand down on the counter with a force that rocked the entire restaurant at its foundations. The expression on her face of pure shock and disbelief said it all.

"**Kakashi-sensei is **_**dating**_** someone?!"**

I nodded slowly, feeling a bit confused at her reaction.

Wasn't this common knowledge? I read it somewhere that they were a couple. I couldn't remember where it was from, but I was almost completely sure that it was cannon. Maybe Kakashi had just been keeping their relationship a secret for some reason.

Well I guess it was out now.

The owners of Ichiraku, whose names I didn't remember, attentively watched the scene unfold. The daughter froze while in the middle of sweeping, a soft yet sad smile crossing her lips.

"I see… so he's already in a relationship."

The older man though crossed his arms, nodded approvingly.

"It's about time he went out and found himself someone. Good for him."

Sakura scrounged around in her pockets, frantically pulling out a few bills from her wallet and slamming them down on top of the table.

"I'll see you later Mako-san. I need to go speak with a few people."

"Oh… okay then."

I gave her a little wave as she sped away, vanishing from my sight within seconds.

I laid my head back down on the counter, enjoying the blissful coolness. I'd need to go home get all of the rest I could for my next day at the academy.

* * *

AN: This ended up being a surprisingly short chapter. ^^; I was going to add more, but in the end I thought that cutting it off here flowed better.


	28. Chapter 27

"Um, Iruka-sensei is there something that's supposed to happen…?"

"Well no. This is just an exercise in concentration."

"How will I know that it works then? Is the leaf on my forehead supposed to explode or anything like that?"

Iruka let out a small chuckle.

"Oh, nothing quite as exciting. Just try to direct all of your chakra to that point on your forehead."

"Okay."

I closed my eyes, thinking about before and how I had been able to concentrate my chakra in my hands. After I showed Iruka what I could do, he explained to me that the reason why my chakra was visible was due to how highly concentrated it was.

When it came to chakra it was all a matter of how you directed it. Your chakra was normally flowing all around inside your body; however there was a way of 'pushing' it to different areas.

I think there was a flashback to this exercise in the manga some time ago, but I was so eager to keep reading and find out what was next in the story that I skimmed over it. At the moment I kind of wished I hadn't.

I just needed to concentrate. If I could sit through school every day and several hours of homework, then focusing on this shouldn't be too difficult.

I took a deep breath, clearing my mind of everything but that strange feeling that I had come to identify as chakra.

I focused on the feeling of the leaf on my forehead; visualizing the chakra flowing up to it. Though it was something I was just imaging, I soon began to feel a slight tingling sensation that continued to grow stronger the more I focused.

"Mako-san, you may stop now."

I snapped my eyes open, somehow instantly cutting off the flow of chakra.

Iruka stood before me, his back to the teacher's desk. He smiled brightly, nodding towards me approvingly. I was the only one in the room at the moment since the rest of the class gone out to recess. I ended up taking him up on his offer for help earlier and he gladly agreed to teach me few things.

"You have a surprisingly good sense when it comes to chakra. Are you sure you haven't had any training before coming here?"

Well I did have an entire wiki at my disposal.

I just shook my head.

"I sort of just figured out the feeling one day and continued practicing from there."

I did get brutally mauled for it, but hey, opportunity cost.

"That's quite interesting. Most of us, since we tend to use chakra unconsciously from birth, have a hard time at first distinguishing the flow of chakra. Though I guess…"

He shifted around a little uncomfortably.

"With your… _situation_ it might by easier for you to do."

It looks like he read my file too.

Though discovering how to use what are basically supernatural powers is pretty awesome in itself, I wanted to start learning some of the _really_ cool stuff.

"Um, Iruka-sensei? When can I start learning some techniques?"

"Well,"

He straightened up his posture, turning around to pick up a couple of loose textbooks scatter along the desk, stacking them up into a neat pile.

"I think it's probably for the best that you learn it from Masuyo-sensei instead of me. I've heard that she's taking her class at a rate different than the rest."

OH NO NO NO NO NO

"D-Do you think that maybe you could possibly just show me…?"

He sighed, grabbing the books and tucking them under one arm.

"I don't want to go against what she has planned for you, but if you're really that interested…"

I nodded eagerly, making sure to use the power of my puppy dog dogs.

"Ok, but only this once alright?"

"That's totally fine! Thank you for showing me!"

Iruka set the books back down on the table, getting himself into a ready position.

"This first one is called the 'Clone Jutsu'. It's one of the basic ninjutsu every student has to learn here to graduate."

He made hand sign.

"The first hand sign we use is called 'Ram'. It looks like this."

Yup, that was a hand sign alright. One of the less painful ones to do at least. I copied him, trying to bend my fingers at the appropriate angles.

"Next is Snake"

Just clasping your hands together? I'm completely okay with that.

"And lastly, tiger."

…How many fingers exactly did I need to have down?

"_Clone Jutsu!" _

Suddenly, there were two puffs of smoke on either side of him. Once it dispersed, perfect copies of Iruka stood in place.

I almost had a heart attack from shear awesomeness.

Let me put this in perspective for you. It's one thing for you so see pictures or a TV show on a screen, but it's entirely different to see it in front of you in glorious 3-D.

I'm learning that. It's settled.

I copied the hand signs the best I could, repeating the phrase.

And nothing happened.

"You need to separate pieces of your own chakra to form the clones. It's tricky, but in time I'm sure you'll be able to do it."

"I'll just keep practicing then. But uh sensei, I have a quick question."

"Yes?"

"Is it required to shout out the attack name when using a jutsu, or is it only for the benefit of the audience?"

"…The audience?"

Whoops.

"Oh, never mind. It's nothing."

Iruka smiled at me, though now looking a bit confused.

"To answer your question, it's not required, but it helps you better focus on the jutsu your trying to perform."

"But isn't it kind of stupid to shout your attack name right before you use it? Doesn't that give away what you're trying to do to the enemy?"

"Well… when you put it that way…"

Iruka paused for a couple of seconds to contemplate, seemingly going through some kind of internal struggle.

"…Let's just move onto the next jutsu alright?"

I nodded, feeling slightly disappointed that my logic did not reach through.

"Okay."

I think Iruka noticed my reaction, because in the next second he was trying to comfort me.

"Mako-san, if you don't want to call out the attack name, you don't have to."

That really wasn't the point I was trying to make, but ok.

I smiled, trying to make it look as cheery as possible.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei!"

He smiled back, now looking suddenly rejuvenated.

"I'll show you the next technique now. It's called the 'Transformation Jutsu'. This is another one of the basic ninjutsu, though this one is a bit more challenging."

We went through the same process of going through the hand signs, Iruka patiently slowing down and giving me time to copy what he was doing .

"The difficult thing about this technique is having to constantly emit chakra. A strong mental image is also needed and has to be maintained for long periods of time."

"_Transformation Jutsu!" _

A large cloud of smoke appeared, quickly dispersing into the atmosphere. Where Iruka had been standing just seconds ago, was now a figure that was the same height as me, had the same clothing as me, the same hair color as me, and the same eye color as me.

I reeled back in horror.

"**IT'S **_**HIDEOUS**_**!" **

My clone frowned.

"But I transformed into _you_."

That hair color. Oh god I was going to puke. Too real, too soon.

I scooted away farther, suddenly feeling like I wanted to go into fetal position. All of my trauma recovery was beginning to unravel before my eyes. My body involuntarily shivered.

Iruka dispelled the technique, looking extremely concerned.

"Are you alright?! Do you need go to the hospital?"

Shaking my head adamantly, I walked back to my original spot.

"I'm fine. Sorry, that just kind of… _happens_ sometimes."

"Well if you say so…"

I flashed him my most award winning smile followed by a bow.

"Thanks for showing me all of this Iruka-sensei. I really appreciate it."

Iruka seemed a little startled from the gratitude, but he quickly accepted it.

"I'm glad to help."

"I know it's asking a lot since I'm sure you're busy, but is it possible you could tutor me tomorrow again at lunch?"

He looked a bit sheepish, now rubbing the back of his neck.

"Normally I would be happy to, but tomorrow I need to go out and buy a wedding gift for someone."

"Oh wow. Congratulations!"

I was honestly a bit curious.

"Who is it? I might know them."

Iruka's expression brightened, a smile spreading across his entire face.

"Hatake Kakashi, a good friend of mine."

He let out a long sigh.

"I wasn't even told about this directly from him. Someone else had to break the news to me. I guess that's just Kakashi for you."

I knew they were dating, but I didn't think their relationship moved along this fast. Maybe I should go out and buy something for them too. Dango would be a good option.

The classroom door slid opened, a couple of students beginning to trickle in.

"I'll be going now. Make sure to keep up with you studies Mako-san."

I gave him a small bow as he picked up the textbooks again and made his way out of the room.

I went and sat down at my desk, practicing the hand signs I was just shown. I was definitely going to learn how to do both of those jutsu. All that was left now was to practice.

* * *

AN: I'm finally getting around the having Kay learn jutsu~!

The KakashiXAnko rumors shall continue! :D Just so you know, I'm not actually paring them together in this story.

I just realized something. It's this storie's two month anniversary! O_O Thank you to everyone who had been reading, faving, and all that good stuff. This is my first time ever getting so far in a story I written because I've always quit before finishing chapter 1.

More stuff to come, and thank you everyone for your support. :D


	29. Chapter 28

"I can hardly believe it!"

Masuyo toasted to a nonexistent person while sitting on top of her desk like usual.

"My little sis is growing up so fast! I'm going to make her tell me all of the details when she gets back from her mission!"

She took another swig from the bottle looking completely ecstatic.

"Even if that Kakashi guy keeps denying it, I'll eventually force him to admit the truth!"

My classmates and I were all stuck in a state of limbo. Sensei wasn't her regular self so we could get away with more, but one wrong step and we'd be punished severally. Judging by the fact that my classmates reacted to her like they normally would, I guessed this was how she always acted when it came to her family.

There was no one though who had the guts to interrupt her rambling.

"Jun, you'll soon have new cousins to play with!"

I nearly choked on the gum I was chewing.

The boy next to me was reading as usual, this time a different book than before.

"Don't care."

"Twenty laps extra today!"

"Fine."

Masuyo jumped off of the desk, landing defiantly with her hands resting on her hips.

"Today calls for a celebrating! And since I have all of you at my disposal…"

Everyone collectively sunk down into their seats, trying hard not to be noticed.

In the end I was the one pointed to.

"Kato. You look old enough to pass."

She chucked a headband my way.

"You're going to go to the Hokage's building and picking stuff up from the storeroom near the main office. That headband should get you past the front door. If you have trouble finding it, ask the Hokage. We aren't drinking buddies for nothing."

"Got it."

I took the headband and tied it loosely around my neck.

Wow, surprisingly it weighed quite a lot. Probably because of the metal.

I stood up from my seat, made my way down the steps, and then headed out the door. In the background I heard more tasks and instructions being given out to the others.

…

It took me a while, but I eventually reached the right location. I straightened myself up, hoping to make it seem like I actually had the credentials to be here and knew what I was doing.

Seeing a couple ninja coming, going, and generally milling about, it made me wonder what I should do.

How should I act if I run into someone who knows me? What if I really do need to talk to Tsunade? Would she even want to see me? Wouldn't she have come and talked to me by now if she did?

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

No big deal. I just needed to get this over with. It would be better to be caught than come back empty-handed.

While entering the building I passed by several ninja I didn't recognize.

So far so good.

I continued walking past, the person at the reception desk barely looked up, busy dealing with some ninja making a complaint. I climbed up the stairs and with a bit more speed and eventually arrived at what I guessed was the correct floor.

Security was surprisingly lax around here. Maybe they did realize I wasn't actually a ninja, or they just thought I wasn't a threat. They could be just waiting for me to make my move, seeing as how if I did want to try something I was completely surrounded by highly trained ninja.

Currently I was strolling through a long hallway with windows on one side, and that turning in a curve. It made sense with the building's circular shape.

So far I had passed several doors, but none of them particularly stood out to me. I wasn't too eager to just open one oand see what was behind it without thinking it through first.

As I continued along, I eventually came to face a very large door with what looked like two Anbu standing guard in front of it. Even with the mask, I recognized one as Yuugo; mostly because of the long purple hair. The other was a guy with spiky light brown hair I didn't recognize.

I couldn't tell what facial expressions they had underneath their masks, but judging by Spiky's tone of voice it must have been one of disinterest.

"What is your business here?"

"I-I'm looking for a storage area, but all of the doors look the same to me…"

I couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh.

The Anbu silently watched me; taking is his sweet time to respond. Eventually he raised his arm and pointed to the right.

"Keep heading that way. It's the third door down."

"O-Oh. T-Thank you very much!"

I bowed, scurrying along to the pointed out location.

I squickly reached the door, this one looking the same as the others.

I'm guessing my behavior was more than a little sketchy, so it would probably be best to hurry along with this retrieval 'mission'. I grabbed the door knob and slowly turned it.

I t was locked.

This was not good. I wasn't given a key and I wasn't very eager to try and get past those Anbu to talk to the Hokage about this.

I turned the knob a couple of more time just to make sure.

Maybe I could pick the lock? I'd never done it before, but it I really have to...

"Having trouble Mako-san?"

I whipped around, instantly going into the defensive position I learned at the academy.

"…Kakashi-san?"

The familiar white haired Jonin stood in front of me, his hands gently resting in his pockets.

"Long time no see."

I could tell he was smiling, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Instead it looked almost cold, the air around him giving off some sort of unnerving chill.

"Y-Yeah."

I tried the door again, suddenly feeling a bit nervous just from standing next to him.

"Allow me."

Kakashi reached out and turned the door knob. There was a sudden cracking noise as the knob finally turned all the way. He pushed the door open, the creaking hinges echoing throughout the hallway.

"T-Thank you."

I suddenly noticed some new indents on the metal door knob.

Kakashi ushered for me to enter.

"After you."

From what I could see it was dark and dusty inside, a lone window on the far side of the room.

I entered, walling to the back side of the little room. With every small step I could feel dread coming over me. Kakashi followed in suit, the eerie smile never leaving his face.

He flipped the switch on the dim overhead lights and slowly shut the door behind him.

Without knowing why, my heart staring beating rapidly inside my chest.

Kakashi smiled even wider underneath his mask.

"Kato-san, let's talk."

* * *

AN: I hope I captured the feeling I was going for here. ^^; I guess this was a kind of cliffhangery chapter. I don't really do those very often.


	30. Chapter 29

The storage room was pretty small; shelves with old boxes piled on top were against three of the walls. Looking closely enough you could see sake bottles inside the worn boxes.

My mind though was on the person standing in front of me.

"I'm sure you've heard the rumors around the village, eh Kato-san?"

I nodded, not quite sure where he was going with this, but was far too nervous to speak.

"I was speaking with Sakura recently and she told me the most _interesting_ thing."

I held my breath, my brain quickly coming to a conclusion.

"Apparently, I'm dating Mitarashi Anko-san. In fact, we're even engaged_._"

He cocked his head to one side.

"Now who could have started spreading lies around like that, I wonder?"

It wasn't a question.

"S-So you're n-not dating Mitarashi-san?"

"I'm not, though I _do _wonder how someone could have come to such a conclusion."

I gulped.

"W-Women's intuition?"

He was not in the mood for humor.

"Maybe it could have been, but how would they be sure they were correct?"

I had no answer. All I could do was watch Kakashi as he continued to smile, all instincts in my body telling me to run.

He slowly came closer to me, blocking my view of the door.

"Isn't it only right that that person fix their mistakes?"

I nodded weakly as Kakashi rested his hand on my shoulder, staring straight into my eyes. I needed to say something.

"H-How?"

"Oh, well being a _ninja_, I'm sure they'll be very creative."

I glanced down at the headband that hung around my neck.

"R-Right."

Kakashi took his hand off of me and brought it back down to his side.

"I keep my promises, but that doesn't always mean I'm easy to work with."

The message was clear. He would still eventually train me, but if I didn't turn around this situation it would become a living hell.

Almost like nothing ever happened, Kakashi casually walked to the other side of the room, pulling the door open. The only thing that gave away his true feelings was the chilling aura around him.

"See you around, Kato-san."

He stepped out, closing it behind him with a loud 'squeak'.

…

Shakily, I headed back towards the academy carrying a dilapidated box in my arms. I hadn't even bothered to really check its contents; grabbing the first thing I saw before running out of the building as quickly as I could.

What did I just get myself into?

I kept stumbling along, internally cursing at myself.

Why did I say that to Sakura anyway? I mean, I did think it was cannon, but I guess it wasn't really my place to talk about things like that without knowing the context behind it.

But now I really wonder; did I just unintentionally screw up someone's life? That then leads to my next question. Does it really matter? If this was a dream and nothing I do is actually real, then is there anything really bad about it?

I want to say no, because none of this could possibly be real, yet-

Would I really be acting like I have been recently if this was real life?

If I did, I would be an extremely horrible person. Destroying private property, talking back to people, making random accusations no matter how truthful I thought they were…

Kakashi hates me. Indeed a fictional character hates me. He was actually one of my favorites in the series and I'm sure I just made his life miserable.

Way to go Kay. Way to go.

I've always prided myself on being a logical person, relying on facts to back up my statements, yet here I was without my crutch of the internet to double check everything. Even with only reading the first part of the series I should be better at putting two and two together.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

You know what; I just want to go home. I want to wake up and forget this whole thing. Then I can finally see my family and friends again and everything could just go back to normal.

Yet I can't.

I'm stuck and my next ticket out is who knows how long away.

What would I rather be doing though?

Do whatever crap I wanted and have people hate me for it or, act like a civil human being and do boring everyday things?

Dreams are supposed to fun though, but I guess not at the expense of people's lives, no matter how fictional they may be.

I need to fix this.

Not because Kakashi told me to, or because this is some sort of guilt trip; but because it's the right thing to do. I'm not a powerful ninja or really good at anything that's valued in this world. Somehow though, I'll figure it out.

Plus there's always the advantage of not being from this world, right?

I kind of just want to be my old self again. I want to look in a mirror and see my real self reflected back at me, not whatever I looked like now.

I stopped for a moment, setting the box I was carrying on the ground.

What were those hand signs again? Dog, Boar, Ram?

A strong mental picture, constant emission of chakra.

"_Transformation Jutsu!" _

Smoke clouded my vision, clearing away just as quickly as appeared.

I walked over to one of the shop windows, taking in my appearance.

It was deformed and mutated, not much accurate of my original appearance. But I finally had my brown hair back.

That made me smile a little bit.

Practice makes perfect, and even if I fail at first, I'm going to make this situation right.

* * *

AN: I think this is my most serious chapter yet. I hope what I was going for came across. ^^


	31. Chapter 30

Some things are easier said than done.

Turing over a new leaf; that was a kind of simple. All you really have to change is yourself. Convincing an entire village that Kakashi was in fact not actually getting married, now that was hard.

"…And that is why The Hidden Leaf Village's government is superior within the Elemental Nations."

Seriously, where the heck am I supposed to start?

"Are there any questions or comments?"

Who should I even talk to? I'm no expert…

"Anything? Anything at all?"

Well I can't exactly take a page out of Naruto's book by beating people up, solving their problems, and then making them my allies.

"Really, no one?"

Maybe I could just tell people one by one it was false; but then again I was a nobody. Why would they believe me? Though, Sakura and those people at the restaurant did in the first place. But they're only three people. I don't even know how far it's spread. Talking to people one by one would never work.

"Mako-san?"

How did it develop into them getting married anyway? Why was Iruka so convinced that he went out and bought them a present? Off of a normal rumor I doubt that people would go so far without some sort of confirmation…

I felt a poke on my shoulder, breaking me out of my thoughts.

Jun looked back at me with a neutral expression.

"Sensei is calling on you."

"Hmm?"

It was true. Iruka was standing in front of the class with a textbook in hand. He looked a bit concerned from my lack of interruptions today. The rest of the class had turned around in their seats to stare.

Over about the week and a half I had been here, my classmates had gained some sort of respect of me. Mostly because of the random fancy vocab I knew and my knowledge of political systems.

All of that was lost though when it come to sparring. There's nothing quite as humiliating as being knocked to the ground and beat up by a little kid half your height.

"Oh um, just continue on with your indoctrination of young children. Don't mind me."

What would be a good strategy though? Maybe I could tell the truth to the influential people around the village. In turn they would have credibility and spread it further. Masuyo-sensei could be a good candidate, being the sister of Anko. Maybe I could get Kakashi to once and for all deny it to a good amount of people, but it looks like he doesn't have much credibility in his own love life. That's kind of sad actually…

"Well then please pay attention! There will be a test on this next week."

"Yes Sensei."

Yeah, I'll just talk to Masuyo-sensei. Even since that party she threw for herself yesterday she's been in a great mood.

"Well then, on to our next topic, trade routes leading from Konoha to smaller countries…"

…

I wasn't able to talk to her during the next class at all, seeing as how Masuyo-sensei wasn't even there. I overheard some of the other teachers whispering around about her being hospitalized for alcohol poisoning or something like that. Thus, she wouldn't be back for a couple days.

Just my luck.

Some of my classmates were literally crying for joy at the news. Many of them began to talk among themselves about how fun class would finally be, having a _nice_ teacher for a while. One kid even suggested that she might never come back. It took them a long time to settle down from excitement after that.

Iruka-sensei was busy once again during lunch, so I sat inside and ate alone. Times like these really made me wish I had my phone to distract myself.

I took my lunch out of a bag I had begun using a backpack. It was of course a cup of uncooked ramen noodles from my stash back home.

Yeah… I still don't know how to cook. At some point I'm going to die from eating too much salt. Then again, Naruto eats ramen for every meal and hasn't gotten heart disease yet. Maybe that's just how this world works. Or it's main character immunity.

I pulled the covering off of the top, grabbing a pair of cheap wooden chopsticks to eat it with from my bag. I then proceeded to stab at the raw noodles to make it into smaller chunks. Eating uncooked ramen is actually kind of delicious. I discovered that one day after class when I felt too dead tired to try and spend the time boiling the water to make it.

Though most of the class had quickly cleared out of the room and left for recess, but I chose to stay inside and think over things over a bit more. And besides, every day when we had our lunch/recess time I had no idea what to do with myself. The last time I even _had_ recess was back in elementary school. I remember how devastated everyone was in sixth grade when we found out it was suddenly gone. We thought it was so horrible, but the older we got, the more we stopped thinking about it and lunch became that sort of time for us.

Well, back to the topic at hand…

"Why are you doing that?"

I turned my head to see Jun standing off the side and watching me, his face blank as usual.

"Oh, this?"

I suddenly realized while zoning out for a second there, I had sent pieces of uncooked noodles flying everywhere. Immediately stopping, I tried to sweep up some to the crumbs into a small pile.

"So I can eat it."

"Why? That's weird."

I stuck a chunk of food into my mouth.

"Mwou smmould tmwy mwit."

He suddenly looked a little confused, if not annoyed.

Old habits die hard I suppose.

I quickly chewed and swallowed, making sure to sure to repeat myself.

"You should try it."

No wait! Saying that could be a terrible influence on him! What if this is really that horribly unhealthy after all!?

"Or not. I mean, it's just alright. You probably shouldn't eat it all of the time or anything like that."

Like_ me_…

Once again he looked disinterested, grabbing for a book he left at his desk. I had tried to read the title once, but of course it was written in kanji.

I wondered if reading was all he did. I never really saw him interact with anyone else very much; though seeing how I never really spent time with my classmates during our free time, I wasn't really a good witness to attest to that.

He was just a little kid though, reminding me allot of my younger cousins. I would always try my hardest when my family got together to include everyone in whatever game or activity we were doing. I guess it's kind of against my morals to just allow people to be left out.

"Hey Jun-kun, what's the book you're reading about?"

He remained completely unfazed by the question.

"Stuff."

"Oh! What kind of stuff?"

"_Stuff_ stuff."

"Like what?"

"Stuff."

Ok, my attempts at socializing weren't working so well… Maybe it's time for a new angle.

"So why do you want to become a ninja?"

That question seemed to basically be the equivalent of asking a kid what they wanted to be when they grew up.

This actually got some sort of reaction out of him, but it was a scowl.

"I don't."

Geez! I'm quickly running out of generic conversation topics here!

"Why did you decide to go to the academy then?"

"My sister made me."

His sister, not his parents? I guess that really could mean anything though.

"You could always quit. I'm sure if you told her how you felt she'd understand."

He eyes widened a bit in surprise before quickly shaking his head.

"I can't. Everyone in my family is a really strong ninja."

Oh, so it really was like that for kids from ninja families. I'm sure it would be hard for anyone to go and tell their family that they wanted to do something completely opposite of their plans, especially when there are heavy expectations. My own parents had their expectations, generally having to do with getting good grades in school, going off to college, and getting involved in activities; that sort of thing. Luckily they weren't the type of people who wanted me to carry on some sort of family profession.

Wait a second. High expectation placed on you, strong ninja in the family, and questionable things about family members-

Before I knew it had stood up and slammed my hands down on the desk.

"**Jun-kun! Do you currently, or have you ever had the desire for revenge?"**

Now that I was towering over him and focusing with an intense stare, he looked a bit fearful, taking a step back with wide eyes.

"N-No…"

I sighed of relief, closing my eyes and sinking back down into my seat. Good, I hadn't run into some sort of Sasuke clone. I've always hated that character.

"I'm glad. Just remember, revenge is not the answer. _Ever._ Just don't do it."

"O-Okay."

I remained laying back with eyes closed for a moment, relieved that brooding kids with dark hair colors weren't destined to go off and betray everyone they knew for some less-than-well-thought-out revenge.

The more time I had to run ideas back and forth in my head, the more I began to think that it was probably for the best if I just went back and talked with Sakura. That way I can figure out where it all went wrong.

I slowly opened my eyes again, turning my head to face Jun.

Maybe I should get his take on this whole thing with his aunt; it might be a good idea to get his opinion-

…Wait. Where did he go?!

I stood up, searching through the classroom for any sign of him. I quickly gave up when I noticed that the door was suddenly left open.

Wow, he was really fast...

...

* * *

AN: I had a hard time trying to come up with a follow up chapter for the last one. ^^; I was trying to come up with some grand scheme from the get go, but then I realized that if I was having a hard time trying to come up with a way to fix this, then I'm sure Kay would too.

I'll figure out something eventually. :D I'm just going to have to wait for it to come to me.


End file.
